Violin Restoration Techniques You Should Know
April 27, 2011It can be disheartening for any musician to find an old instrument with cracks or holes. If you have such an instrument, it’s never to late to try to repair it. Violin restoration in particular can be done at home provided that you have the necessary tools, skills and patience to do it.
Whenever you undertake a project of this nature, it is best to completely clean the instrument’s body. This makes the process go along much faster, and it’s possible that sweeping away the dust will reveal a few other scratches in need of repair. Before cleaning, you will have to completely remove the strings. For old instruments, it is best to replace the strings completely after the whole process is complete.
Cleaning the instrument will make it much easier later on when you’re handling the instrument. It also helps to reveal any areas that you might also need to repair. You can use a soft paintbrush to brush away the dust. Go all over the body and under the fingerboard. Don’t forget the peg box and tail piece. The scroll is also an area that you might want to concentrate as it is quite often neglected.
After you’ve brushed away the dust, it’s time to move on to a cotton swab clean. Moisten the swab with some mineral spirits to remove the grime more easily. Don’t soak it too much; you only want to dampen it a little so as not to harm the wood. Go all over the body as before, but this time, don’t forget the corners where the grime tends to accumulate. To make sure that you haven’t left anything out, go over the whole area with a soft cotton cloth.
Dings and scratches should be too much of a problem, so concentrate your efforts first on the cracks. All you need is wood filler for these areas. Use this sparingly so that you won’t affect the sound of body too much. Leave it dry for at least twelve hours, and then you can use a stain to match the color of the violin.
Put on the new strings as well as the chin rest and pegs. Tune it up and test it out. Wait for the strings to settle before determining whether or not you need further repairs.
These minor repairs should be easy for anyone to do, but for much more serious damages, you would do better with a violin restoration service. You will have to spend a bit more, but the quality of their work is worth the price.
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