Violin Forum/Message Board

[Cliff Green]

Michael, I notice on your blog site that you use a dissecting microscope. Do you have any recommendations on a model that would be useful for violin work.

Thanks

[Michael Darnton]

I don't. It's not really useful for violin work. I bought it for varnish research, and the only shoppy type thing I use it for is to scan backs for soundpost cracks, and look for breaks in bows, because with it you can see individual cross-structural fibers and observe if they have been broken or not, no matter how nicely the crack has been glued.

If you're thinking of something useful for the shop, there are a couple of approaches. Your dentist may use glasses that are binocular telescopes mounted in glasses, but they have a relatively small field. They're nice for fine retouching, and that's about it. Here's the general category on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=binocular+magnifier&_sacat=0&_from=R40

The visor things that come up in this category are handy, but fatiguing and inconvenient to wear all day, but I also have a set for close retouching.

What I did for myself was use various reading glasses until I came up with which one would be the most useful strength for me, and then have my eye doctor build me a special pair of glasses for that distance. For me, the most useful turned out to be 11", and he set up a prescription with prism and closeup correction based on that, and they are REALLY NICE. I use them for fitting posts, cutting bridges, and retouching.
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[Cliff Green]

Thanks Michael
I have some good 2-3X loupes. I was thinking that something in the 20X would be good for cracks, touch ups and all around curiosity plus I was a biology major and spent some time over a scope.