Necessity is the Mother of Invention

[Dan Schultz]

Ain't if fun, Wade? One of the volunteer things I do in the Spring is to introduce ten-year-olds to the local symphony. I maintain a 'fleet' of about fifty instruments for the kids to fool with during the presentation. The worst cases are six cheap Chinese violins that I donated to the symphony a couple of years for this purpose. It's ongoing problem keeping the sound posts and bridges in these instruments. Not necessarily because they are cheap... but because the kids just HAVE to fool with the tuning pegs. Of course... once the little twerps have loosened the strings... the bridge falls out and the sound post comes out.

I've gotten very good and putting things back together. However... since these violins will NEVER actually be played... I've seriously considered putting a bit of epoxy on the bridges AND the sound posts.

I have to do something similar with the six clarinets. The kids insisted on taking them apart and bending the bridge keys trying to get them back together. Those six clarinets are now glued together from the bell to the mouthpiece. Only the ligature and reed can be removed.

[windshieldbug]

As we say up this way, Necessity is a motha'

Oh, nice tools! Don't show them to the Music Director, or the next time you miss an entrance, you won't be able to use the excuse, "Sorry Maestro, my soundpost fell" (Not that I've ever tried anything like that... )

[MaryAnn]

I've gotten very good and putting things back together. However... since these violins will NEVER actually be played... I've seriously considered putting a bit of epoxy on the bridges AND the sound posts.

I have to do something similar with the six clarinets. The kids insisted on taking them apart and bending the bridge keys trying to get them back together. Those six clarinets are now glued together from the bell to the mouthpiece. Only the ligature and reed can be removed.

That's very funny; I would have been inclined to do exactly the same thing.

Waaaay back in about 1971 when I played a partial season with the Memphis Symphony, my sound post fell down. I don't remember how it happened; I certainly knew how to prevent it; maybe a little too lackadasical changing strings. But my then father-in-law, who was the union contractor for the orchestra and a violinist too, said he could put it up. He hacked away at it. damaging the F hole in the process, and left the post wedged between the top and the bottom, not even straight up. He simply could not understand why I was upset with him and took it forthwith to a repair man, *after* loosening the strings and making the sound post fall again. This was NOT a cheap violin.

MA

[SousaSaver]

I try and try to make a magnetic dent removal system with refrigerator magnets, but I always fail....

[windshieldbug]

I try and try to make a magnetic dent removal system with refrigerator magnets, but I always fail....

Don't leave the milk in there for so long...