I did something I thought I would NEVER have to do!!!

Cyclone season is something that is very familiar to the Mauritian population, but it is very new to me (Becky). A few weeks ago, a cyclone was nearing Mauritius. I did not feel a need to be nervous, as everyone just went about their day to day activities. So I quietly waited to see how life would go for the next few days and weeks. We experienced heavy rains and winds for about a week, but there was not much damage per se. The cyclone ended up veering toward the island of Reunion, and did not come right toward Mauritius as was expected. Pascal and I kept all of our windows tightly shut during this time as we did not want water to get into the house. We were thankful that all seemed well, and we did not have any damage... or so we thought.

A few days later, Liam was playing in the corner of the living room where we keep the guitar and violin (always in their cases). When I went to get Liam, I realized there was a big puddle of water on the floor. We then realized that water had slowly been seeping in through a hairline crack in the concrete wall. We immediately got the guitar and violin out of their cases. The guitar was fine, but the bottom of my violin felt moist. The violin case is made of foam padding, with a somewhat waterproof exterior. However, the case is not waterproof when sitting in water for several days. I pulled the violin out of the case, and let it air dry for several days. Thankfully the hot weather helped it to dry well. Several days later, I put it back in its case, and closed the lid, thinking all was fine.

Fast forward a few days again... Some friends invited us over for dinner, and told us to bring our instruments to play. We got to their house, and as I got my violin out of its case, I realized the damage was much worse that I thought. It seems that the wood probably contracted some when it was drying, which created more stress on the violin, because of the taut strings. The fingerboard (which is the black part that you play with your fingers on) was now touching the top wooden body plate of the violin. At first, I thought the wood had swelled up, but on closer examination we realized that in fact, the neck of the violin had actually come forward (the neck and the fingerboard are tightly glued together, and then the neck is glued into the top part of the body of the violin). For those of you who know me well, you know how much I love my violin!  I was very saddened at the thought of it being broken.

I called the two major music schools in Mauritius, posted an add on a facebook page for moms in Mauritius, called some violin teachers... all in search of whether there is a luthier (a person who works on and builds violins, cellos, guitars, etc. . .) in Mauritius. It seems that there is no luthier in Mauritius. So I thought that if my violin could possibly be fixed, it may be several months or years before I would get to play it again (until we could go to France or the US to have it looked at).

We decided to call the luthier that had done some minor work and adjustments to my violin before I left the States. His name is Gary Cornett, and he works in Louisville, KY. He had told me that I might have a few problems with the violin living in a sub tropical and very humid climate. In that eventuality, he had given me some hide glue before we left just in case I would need to do a minor repair on the violin. I of course never thought I would use it... but I brought it with me... just in case!

As I talked to him over the phone and explained to him what had happened, he reassured me that he had never seen a violin that he could not fix! This really boosted my spirits. Then he told me I could actually fix it myself! I was not very keen on trying to work on a delicate instrument with no experience... but I realized that I did not really have a choice at this point. He took about 30 minutes to explain to me all the details of what I would need to do to fix it so that it would be "playable" again. This would be a temporary fix until I could have a luthier look at it.

So Pascal and I decided to give it a try. My violin was made in 1930 in France, so I was a bit nervous working on a such an old instrument, but God helped us all along the way to go slowly, and work very carefully. Here are the picture of the step by step process.

We have gotten the strings off of the violin as well as the chin rest.

Back of the violin before we begin ungluing the neck of the violin.

Gently applying hot water around the violin neck to melt the old hide glue. It took us about 2 hours to get the neck out. The luthier had told us that it would take about that long and that patience was of the utmost importance. 

Making sure we get all the old glue out so that the new glue will keep the neck in place. Once we got the neck and all the old glue out, we let the violin sit for several days to dry again.

We mixed water with the hide glue and let it sit for three hours. We then put it in a double boiler to gently heat the glue up for 30 minutes.

Pascal applying glue to the ingrain. The glue had to be applied to the ingrain until it was saturated with glue. The excess glue was then wiped off.  

Putting hide glue on the ingrain. We then let this part sit for two hours.

Needing to reglue the perfling (black edging that runs around the back of the violin)

Regluing the perfling after reheating the hide glue, and getting excess glue off with a Q tip.

Regluing small crack between bottom part of the body and ribbing of the violin.

Refitting the neck back in was challenging because the neck and the body had to be glued together within 1 minute and 15 seconds. If hide glue is exposed for longer than that, the glue loses its potency. After refitting the neck Becky (shown above) simply applied some glue in the crack of the joints. 

Tying a big rubber band around the whole violin to keep the neck in place.

Neck is now clamped in place.

Violin neck is glued back in place and clamped on. Now it needs to sit for 24 hours.

Picture of the soul post (the soul post or sound post is a small piece of wood that rests between the top plate and bottom plate of the violin and allows the violin to resonate).

Pascal getting ready to put the soul post back in. Pascal bent a hanger that allowed us a certain measure of control over the bottom of the soul post. I held the top of the soul post in place with the string, and Pascal used the bent hanger to adjust it at the bottom.
 

Soul post is back in place (to the best of our abilities), and now we are restringing the violin.

Restringing the violin at the top.

Violin is restrung, and ready to be tried out! We simply needed to cut off the string from the soul post to remove it. As of right now, the bridge (lighter pice of wood which holds the strings up) is still a little high. We will need to get some coarse sand paper and file it down a few millimeters. 

We prayed and thanked the Lord for helping us throughout this whole process. We are also very thankful for Gary Cornett who helped us several times over the phone as we had questions along the way. What a blessing it is to be able to play my violin again!