The new (old) fiddle

It was in sad shape when I found it. The vendor was running an estate sale in a sixties-vintage house in north Dallas, just off Coit Road. The fiddle was lying on a couch and looked as bedraggled as much of the other junk stuff up for sale. It hadn't belonged to the now-dead inhabitant. The vendor had had it sitting around for some time, in its old, wooden case.

The bow had been attacked by bow mites. Only a few strands of horsehair stuck out of the frog. The sound post was loose inside the fiddle. There was no bridge, and only two strings out of the four it should have had. It had been "rode hard and put up wet," as I learned to say in west Texas years ago. Not literally, of course. The fiddle had, I was told, been in the top of someone's closet for years, maybe decades. I looked it over. Inside was the obligatory label: Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis 1726. Of course it was a Strad, just like every old fiddle made between 1800 and 1950. (Note: snark alert). But it seemed fundamentally sound—no obvious cracks. The neck seemed straight and secure.

He wanted $125.00 for it. We agreed on $85.00. I think he was glad to finally move it. I was taking the risk I'd been wanting to take for months—buying an old fiddle for next to nothing in the hope of getting something playable.

More to come.

Old Fiddle for Old Music

Saturday, my SO and I found an old fiddle at an estate sale, for which the seller wanted $125.00. At $85, we agreed on the sale. Today, I was able to get it to a luthier for a look-see. Rob at Fiddle and Bow Music in Dallas says it's a German violin from about 1910 or so. Could be earlier or later, but that's close to what I thought, too. Since we agree, Rob is obviously correct.

The bridge is down, the soundpost rattles around inside, and the strings haven't made a joyful noise in a long time. Bugs ate the bow hair. There seems to be a seam separating where the ribs meet the top on the treble side down by the bottom of the fiddle, but nothing appears to be seriously wrong with it. The arch of the top and back is more pronounced than my first fiddle, a Chinese import.

North Dallas, by the way, is a great place to be a fiddler. Within ten minutes of my house are two good luthiers! Both willingly examined the violin as soon as I walked through their doors. The generosity of the folks involved with these instruments is a constant delight. Fiddle and Bow Music is where I study, so of course, they get the job of setting it up, but props also to Jay R. Rury Violins for courtesy and willingness to look it over.

I'm told it's getting harder to find a fiddle at garage/estate sales, so it's particularly pleasing to have found this one. Wonder how it will sound?