Questions: Violin refinish

by Michael Darnton

Originally published in American Lutherie #103, 2010



Winthrop Eastman from the Internet asks:

I have a violin that belonged to my great grandmother. It has been in an attic for many years. We sold the house and I rescued the old violin. I would like to restore or refinish it, but I don’t want to damage its sound quality in any way. Can you direct me to a book or literature on how to restore such stringed instruments. I am quite handy at restoring furniture but have never tackled a violin. There is a dusty old label inside the violin that says “Carl Friedrich Pfretzschner 1773.”