Violin, Part 2

I am making great progress on the old violin that I bought.  I didn't want to do too much, but I did want to make it playable.  I didn't want to strip the finish, even though half of it is missing.  Namely, because that would take away it's natural finish, and make authenticating the violin hard to do.  I didn't refinish the violin, but I did re-touch it in a few places.  I have a few paint/ stain pens that work just wonderfully for that kind of job. 

To make it playable, I first need to fix the peg holes.  It's basically a fill and drill job.  So no problem.  I didn't like how one of the holes came out, so I am re-doing that hole.  Due to time, wear, and what I suspect was someone doing a terrible job in making the holes bigger, I had to redo the holes.  Luckily, I have a source that sells maple dowel rods.

The next thing to do was to make a new bridge.  The old one was warped and didn't fit right.  I am thankful for my violin book giving advice on how to make one.  I had to really take the bridge down a ways since the angle of the neck is very flat.  I am very happy in how the bridge has turned out. 

The one thing I was not looking forward to doing was installing the soundpost.  I have to put a tiny stick underneath the foot of the bridge.  Luckily, my violin book told me a great way to put it in using wire, and an installing tool.  (Note: it can be seen in the pictures.)

So the next moves are to:

1.  Let the glue dry.
2.  Re-bore the D peg hole.
3.  If everything fits, then I put the bridge in place.
4.  String her up.  Tune her up.
5.  Play "Devil Went Down To Georgia."

So in just a day or so my little, old violin will be up and playing.