Exactly. Alcohol polish. Very carefully. Practice on junk!!
And I'm not looking for a gloss as much as a gleam!
Type: Posts; User: Stephen Perry
Exactly. Alcohol polish. Very carefully. Practice on junk!!
And I'm not looking for a gloss as much as a gleam!
I considered a retail shop in Old Town Alexandria, one of the walk ups. But folks expect one to show up, keep regular hours, be friendly, be dressed, all that difficult stuff. If I had a business...
Thanks all. I'm actually doing pretty well, overall, was stretched very thin for a good while, spent a lot of time in hospitals and rehab! It's nice, but demanding, to have a family of sorts back...
Greetings mando peoples. Things have settled down sufficiently that I'm starting to touch mandolins again. I'm just outside of Old Town Alexandria, VA. After fits and starts, my shop is fully up...
Long ago, the differences in production were nicely explained to me:
An experienced old guy loads up his cart with wood. He goes to the carving room. He distributes the prettiest wood to the...
I've used chemical strippers, but only when I knew what they would do. Easier to get by with if a very dark or antiqued finish is going on!
Mechanical removal is the sensitive approach. A friend...
I distinguish harshness from brightness. Lots to be done to smooth things out, take "too bright and harsh" into "brilliant and luminous." Doesn't always work. Really changes violins!
More to it than picks. Look up my how to do mandovoodoo post, somewhere in here. Lots of warmth and sweetness in the Eastman line. Just have to bring it out.
Attack especially is different. And the tonal consistency between lower and upper registers. Night and day to my ears.
I have to say I like the F hole better by a goodly margin, although I...
Violin is pretty easy. No frets to trip over, and a big stick. But only if you have excellent trained hearing for intonation, and can relax into the instrument.
The Stringworks instruments are...
Fun times. I've had those oddball elements in cases. In general, one also wants to learn about bunches of other things when one's property is in another's hands. What happens if the bailee goes...
Some of us will quietly slip red spruce into violins as bass bar material, without mentioning it. Just an example!
"For the most part, yes. Mandolins are finicky little beasts where minor tweaks can yield significant differences." This is rather true. Some of the things that ultimately made a substantial...
Interesting sound. I can see that the changes from a normal fiddle involve at a minimum wider neck at the nut, and a custom tailpiece. Were I making one (which I could be talked into), I would...
The bridges were a bit soft and clunky. Cumberland Acoustics made a bit of difference Mainly fitting. These always responded to my mandovoodoo work well. Some were really excellent at that price...
State law issue. Well developed in NC. Read and consider: https://www.nctreasurer.com/Claim-Your-Cash/For-Holders-Of-Unclaimed-Property/Pages/Forms-and-Guides.aspx
Setup is so much. I like making my slightly fat soundposts like this: https://trianglestrings.com/soundpost/
Peg fitting isn't a thing to ignore https://trianglestrings.com/fittingpegs/
A real...
Hey Jeff! Cool stuff. I noticed the American work is often hard to kind of place in the schools.
I made a bow once. Ended up with about a $400 student bow as to performance with about as much...
Thank you: "Years ago I got my wife a violin setup (case, bow included) from Stephen Perry for about 5 bills. I am a pretty good judge of tone in acoustic instruments, and to me the thing sounds flat...
I'm glad I never realized that the small ones were difficult!
Re differences: A room full of people carving tops and backs. An old guy brings in wood. He hands the wood he thinks is prettier to the people he thinks carve best. Lots of noise in that system....
As mentioned, setup. Two things hard squeezers have in common are 1) ergonomics are not efficiently allowing accurate movement and relaxed finger use, and 2) fretting isn't right up against the...
Main thing is to not have a corner exposed. I shape the edge to a curve where I get the bite I want in the middle, but fades to nothing at the sides. I make overlapping trenches in the wood, with...
That's been my experience. And when I played gamba a lot, I kept finding myself trying to push the frets a little for better intonation!! Rather odd feelings.
Fiddle is easy. Big stick, and no frets to trip over!