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I play a violin that has been in the family for a long time.  So, i thought i would tell a little history of how this violin became what it is today.  A long time ago, i think that the violin was in my great aunts closet.  My dad saw it and asked if he could fix it up and use it.  As long as i could remember, he had been playing this violin.  He used it every morning when he  got up with me to practice.  Eventually when i got old enough he gave it to me and i have been playing it ever since.

 

The violin was built in 1934.  I'm not sure where all the flaws on this violin came from but there are a bunch of cracks, divots, scrapes and other imperfections.  I'm sure that someone who played quite well used the violin at one time because there is some wear up by the neck from playing up high.  I'm almost sure that the headstock, at one time, was actually ripped off.  Also there are all sorts of other cracks from weather and other various unknown forces.  The most dangerous crack is right on the back under the sound post.  The crack is not getting any bigger at the moment and the violin remarkably still sounds great despite this potentially fatal flaw.  This also foreshadows the remote possibility that the violin might explode at any given moment.

 

Since i have had the violin I fixed the headstock with epoxy and glued the violin back together.  I've taken this violin all over the United States including Hawaii and Alaska, Canada, and to Europe a few times.  We've seen a lot of jam sessions and shows.  One particularly large gouge in the top of the violin was made when i was playing in a large fiddle group.  One of the other fiddlers bowed right down into the top of my violin.  Also, when I was performing a show... Colin Botts, our bass player at the time, threw his whole body back in a flying stage antic.  The bass headstock went smack in the middle of the violin and smashed the whole thing.  It would be equivalent to taking a baseball bat and smashing the violin like a pinata... needless to say, it was unplayable after that.  I took it to Dan Salini in Salt Lake City who fixed it up quite nicely.  Since then i've been pretty successful at keeping the violin intact and it surprisingly still sounds the same.  It is amazing how much kinship you can feel towards an instrument and how much character it can develop over the years.

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