Sometimes you get some interesting violins into the shop. My friend Darlene had told me of two old fiddle her great grandmother used to play. I kept at her to bring them in so I could see them, and she finally did today. Darlene used to play violin when she was little, and she might have me repair the Magginni model. But the one in these pictures is the other of her great grandmother's, that frankly looks like folk art. No label inside, no corners, really crude F-holes. It was fun to look at. I thought I would upload some pics to share.

Very interesting indeed!  The folk art ones always seem to have a lot of character, despite how crude they sometimes are.

The more I looked at it, the more I began to think that the top is likely a replacement one, as it does not to appear to have been made by the same hand (or finish) as the back. I think the tailpiece is home-made, as is the E and A peg. (When I wrote earlier that it did not have corners, I meant corner blocks.)

The way the fiddle looks in pictures #2 and #3, the top appears to be completely intact, indicating that there's no neck block and the neck is inserted from the end and the end of the neck IS the block (Spanish style neck). Let us know how it sounds when it's finally in playable shape.

There ought to be a place on the hangout especially for folks to upload pictures of home-made and "outsider" fiddles.

Set up a database with a form to fill out with each upload and you'd have a searchable record of a whole world which I don't think anyone has seriously documented before (if I'm wrong about that let me know).

WOW Dan...that's a fabulous idea. I collect American fiddles and had mention the name of one of my 1932 fiddles on the hangout. 8 months later a family was doing a search for one of their grandfathers violins that he had built in NY state and that led them through their google search to the FHO. They contacted me via a private message and wanted to buy it. The gentleman had died and the widow passed out all the remaining violins that he had built to friends and so no family member was able to have one. I sold it to the family back in PA and they are thrilled to have one back in the family...so you knew know what will happen on the FHO. It's a great story and it could happen again. Nice idea about a data-base.
Diane in SoCal

very interesting fiddle

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Originally posted by Mandogryl

Sometimes you get some interesting violins into the shop. My friend Darlene had told me of two old fiddle her great grandmother used to play. I kept at her to bring them in so I could see them, and she finally did today. Darlene used to play violin when she was little, and she might have me repair the Magginni model. But the one in these pictures is the other of her great grandmother's, that frankly looks like folk art. No label inside, no corners, really crude F-holes. It was fun to look at. I thought I would upload some pics to share.

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 I would love to hear what it sounds like when you have it set up.