Violin Forum/Message Board

[Chet Bishop]

http://www.bluefiddles.com/2013/10/great-great-grandpa-grays-fiddle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=great-great-grandpa-grays-fiddle

Some of you may enjoy this post.

Chet
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Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[ctviolin]

Great story and well told, Chet.

Having something like that hanging around the family Isn't worth much financially, but the story, and the history that goes along with it, makes it worth as much as if it were a real Strad...
I wish some heirloom like that was in my family, and handed down.
Well, I guess there was, I was handed down a small chrome knight, where the head flicks open as a cigarette lighter. I remember a pair of them sitting on my grandparents mantle. My brother has the other one.

I have it faithfully in my shop, sitting next to the stereo.

Thanks for posting that story, bud, I really enjoyed reading it.
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[actonern]

Great story Chet:

We had an old fiddle in the family when I was growing up. As a kid I remember the smell of it more than anything else... it seemed mysterious and "old worldy."

[SooT]

Not a fiddle, but I have my Dad's manual calendar that was presented to him when he retired. The wooden base is made from wood from HMS Victory, which was being refitted at the time he retired. My father worked in the Dockyard where HMS Victory was in dry dock and open to the public. Dad took me around the ship many, many times. So everyday I change the date I think of my Dad.

[johngia]

Thanks guys for sharing your stories.

You've inspired me to share two of my family heirloom stories:

I have my late Uncles violin. Back in the thirties, he was on his way to being a published song writer. He died a premature death at about 21 years of age when my Dad was 13 years old. Although I never knew him, I have always felt a bond with him, as I am also a musician. I was named after him, and my Grandmother left his violin to me. This was one of her most precious possessions --- a connection to her first born. On her death bed she made sure the family knew that I was to get it. Gramma loved all her grandchildren equally, but me? --- She referred to me as "mio figlio mia" ---- Italian for "my son". It is one of my most prized possessions.

I also have several of my late Dad's guitars, harmonicas, mandolins, Ukulele, and the mountain dulcimer he made. One of these guitars was the one he had in the service during WWII. He never talked much about the war, but one story he did tell me:

During one battle, he and his fellow soldiers were holed up in an old school house and were under intense bombardment. Everyone there really thought that they were about to die, so my Dad started playing his guitar. As he's playing, the shelling is shaking the whole building. On a shelf above his head was a bust of that leader of Germany at the time, and about to fall on my Dad. My Dad stopped playing. Moved the bust, and said, "If I'm going to die, it's not going to be with you falling on my head". He went back to playing his guitar.

That's my Dad !!

[kubasa]

Chet, that's really a treasure. It's nice when heirlooms are taken care of and preserved! Unfortunately, our family lost an old mandolin that was hand made for my grandparents by a farmer who made instruments during his winters in exchange for a cow or a pig or some other necessity. I got to play the mandolin at one point. It didn't have the greatest sound but it played extremely well and was well built. It's just sad that it "disappeared". Strange things happen to loved ones possessions after death....

James

[Chet Bishop]

Well, the loss of that mandolin is a real grief.

I had been told before Grandpa died that I was to have his woodworking tools. But when all was said and done, it turned out that his second wife (he married my grandmother's sister after Grandma died) had not known that, so, had given almost all the tools away to her friends.

(Ah, well...perhaps they are loving them in his memory...)

I think I will set up that old fiddle this evening and get it playing again. I had forgotten that I had actually repaired the cracked pegbox, and installed spiral bushings. All I have to do is finish trimming the pegs, and set it up. The pegs were already fitted, but apparently I set it aside because of other work piling up, and never got back to it...eventually forgot that i had completed the needed repairs.

It will be nice to hear it warming up, clearing its throat, and beginning to sing again. As I recall, it had a sweet sound; definitely not a concert violin, but perfect for a country fiddler.

It was given to me with the admonition that it was "never to be sold--never to be given away outside the family". So, I'm the "Keeper of the Fiddle" for this generation...probably my youngest son, Brian, will inherit that privilege.

Chet
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Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[johngia]

[Mat Roop]

Nice stories.... Well I don't have a nice tale to tell, but I will say that my favorite jobs are the "sentimental" and family "heirloom" jobs that come in ...quite often actually. These jobs get priced the same as usual, and sometimes the violin is not really worth the cost of repair, so I usually price it on the cheap, and then some how I never seem to make much profit because on top of the cheap, they invariably get that real extra effort to make them as good a violin as possible, varnish gets touched up but still leaving a trace of the unknown story behind every nick, perfect bridge and post. I'm not sure the perfect bridge and post make much difference on these usually factory fiddles, but they just seem to deserve so much more than "just a violin".
Cheers, Mat

[Chet Bishop]

[johngia]

P.S

I just have to share an additional detail of my Uncle's violin story:

I vaguely remember my Dad telling me that he saw my Uncle scraping the inside of a violin. Several days ago I asked my Aunt, his sister, about that. She is 95 years old and the last of that generation. She told me, yes, my Uncle was always building or rebuilding violins. That is something I did not know until now.

Yep --- connected --- I guess that explains my obsession with making violins. Working on 21 and 22.

P.P.S.

There are pictures of my Dad's guitar at http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2521

I had posted a repair question there.