Repairs
At Wai Violins, you can be assured that your instruments and bows will be treated in a careful, considered and detailed manner.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
The following is a partial list of repairs, set-ups and bow-work available. Do contact me directly if you have any other queries not listed below.
Instrument Repairs/Set-ups for Violins, Violas and Cellos
- Bridge Cutting
- Servicing of Existing Pegs
- Fitting of New Peg Set
- Wittner Finetune Peg Fitting
- Pegbox Bushing
- Soundpost Reset/New Soundpost
- Fingerboard Shooting(re-surfacing)/New Fingerboard
- New Nut/New Saddle
- Endpin bushing/New Endpin
- Neck Reset/Neck Graft/Neck Reshaping for hand comfort/stability
- Glue Loose Bass Bar/New Bass Bar
- Crack Repairs/Seam Repairs
- Varnish issues/touch-up
- Soundpost patch for soundpost cracks
- Sound adjustments
- Sound/buzz trouble-shooting
Bow Rehairs and Repairs
- Bow Rehairs
- Leather grip replacement
- Tip replacement
- Silver/Silk/Faux Whalebone winding replacement
Selected Guitar Structural Repairs
I occasionally do structural guitar repairs on request. These include:
- Neck Reset
- Headstock repair with backstrap reinforcement
- Crack repair
- Reglue braces
- Bridge Repairs/Reglue/Custom New Bridge
- Set up/Action Diagnosis
- Fretwork/Fretboard work
Biomechanics
I have an interest in fitting violinists/violists to their instrument.
A study done in the Netherlands at the Utrecht School for the Arts between 2000 – 2005 guides my thought process when approaching this issue. The findings of this study can be found at www.violinistinbalance.org Different shaped jaws, neck heights and biomechanics will require different chin-rest/shoulder-rest combinations. Often the giraffe-necked need higher chin-rests and not higher shoulder-rests. Cost of fitting will depend on the physical parts required and whether any fabrication or modification of parts and fittings are required.
Some Repairs I Have Done
Fingerboard Dressing
At Wai Violins, you can be assured that your instruments and bows will be treated in a careful, considered and detailed manner.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
Fingerboard Dressing might be done as part of routine maintenance, or to address the playability of an instrument. Often the instrument presents as being difficult to play in certain positions, buzzing strings, or a dissatisfaction with articulation or sound despite changes in string types. Fingerboard shaping requires a high degree of physical woodworking skills in shaping difficult hardwoods that tear out easily. On top of that, fingerboard shaping is a surprisingly complex topic. There are fixed radiuses to consider, and a concavity along the length, which varies from string to string. The strings fan out in a conical way, so the geometry is not strictly cylindrical. We could go on about it all day. At the end of the day, different luthiers resolve the conundrum in different ways and optimal playability is the goal.
Pegbox bushing and New Peg Installation
At Wai Violins, you can be assured that your instruments and bows will be treated in a careful, considered and detailed manner.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
When Pegs do not hold well or turn well, they can be serviced for some time. The pegholes are reamed round again and consequently, the pegholes get bigger and the pegs get “fatter” over time. They also get shorter as we trim the ends that protrude out of the pegbox. This is not optimal for ease of tuning and functionality of the pegs. The solution is to bush the pegbox with a peg-shaped bushing, and make new pegholes all over again which are small diameter, to which nice new functioning pegs can be fitted.
1939 Violin Repair
At Wai Violins, you can be assured that your instruments and bows will be treated in a careful, considered and detailed manner.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
This nice violin labelled Suzuki Violin was made in Japan in 1939, just before WWII! It seems to have been made very nicely, with neat workmanship and nice spruce and maple. The bass bar however was very low and not fitted well. Also some of the violin was starting to come apart. The top block had also cracked and the lower ribs needed shortening.
After fitting a new bass bar, and attending to the various structural issues, this violin turned out to have a very nice voice.
Bridge Cutting
At Wai Violins, you can be assured that your instruments and bows will be treated in a careful, considered and detailed manner.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
It is my aim that students, teachers and musicians have an instrument that is functioning optimally so that they can concentrate on learning, growing and making music.
Bridge Cutting for Violins, Violas and Cellos is usually requested because the original broke, or is not functioning optimally, or a sound adjustment is requested which would be best undertaken with a new bridge cut with the planned adjustments in mind. It usually starts with me taking instrument measurements: checking the fingerboard projection and position, the bass bar position, determining the centre points of the instrument (cue lots of talking to myself). I then determine which bridge blank I will use, what position I would like to fit it on the instrument, which then determines the soundpost position. Bridges are carved from bridge blanks, which are basically large, chunky bridges. The feet are carved to fit the top of the instrument exactly. I use this archaic thing called carbon paper at the final stages of fitting the bridge feet. (In my previous life, I remember using carbon paper, placed under the manually written prescription on the polyclinic notes so that there would be a record there. The clinic assistant would spend a part of a day cutting them to the exact size of the prescription so that clinicians could grab a piece if needed.) The bridge heights are then determined and then the entire bridge carefully sculpted to achieve both sound goals and aesthetic goals.