Woodworker | Musician | Artist | Maker
instrument repair
I've mentioned elsewhere on the site that I've spent time repairing instruments in a music store. There, I worked on guitars, bass guitars, ukuleles, banjos, violins, violas, cellos, upright basses, and the occasional oud, Irish harp, or saz. Most of the repairs were minor, but I did have the good fortune to assist with some more major repairs. Unfortunately, I tend not to remember to take progress photos when repairing an instrument, so the gallery below is a little light. I'll try to be more diligent in the future though!
Click an image for a closer look and description.
Briefly before I left, I was repairing string instruments at a high school I worked in. Some were in pretty bad shape, like this violin who had it's neck snapped off. Fortunately it was a pretty clean break.
After I had tried to fill in any missing chunks where the break had happened (at the base), I glued the neck back on and let it set for some time. Bear in mind this isn't a high-quality instrument, or a particularly high-quality repair but, I did do my best to make it neat, and took the opportunity explore this kind of repair.
Here is the instrument at a different angle. One of the challenges was to ensure the neck was reattached at the proper angle.
After cleaning up years of grime and dust, I reattached the hardware and strings. It's a nice instrument for a student orchestra, and it plays well. Hopefully it will get many more years of use.
I'll add more to this gallery soon, so be sure to check back again!