this violin belonged to my great grandfather, probably his mother, and possibly his grandmother. it was made in either czech or germany around 1852 and is a factory produced replica of a stradivarius. it was in horrible disrepair from poor storage and from being reassembled by someone who made a total mess of it. i had to completely disassemble it and strip off all the finish. i also had to fabricate some new bracing and buy a few new pieces of the ebony parts. i finally finished it today, and it is actually holding a tune and sounds pretty good.

i also had to refinish and rehair the bow.

here are some progress pics

before




during





beginning assembly




stained




and finished