The fiddle-repairman's workshop....

Jim fashioned new neck heel and end blocks replace the damaged originals.

This clever reinforcing of the broken button is designed to be concealed by the original.

Jim cut away the rotted wood on either side of the neck...

and crafted new wood infill, with inlay ebony dividers.

With the internal repairs completed, Jim glued the body back together before reattaching the neck and applying fresh varnish. Then he fitted a new bridge and strings.

Generously, Jim found a new, more protective case, and a bow as well. After he delivered it, I would occasionally pick up the old instrument and, as expected, was underwhelmed by the acoustics. Finally, I decided to take it back to Ralph for a once-over, as in any event I had promised Jim that I would do.

I was pleased to find that that Ralph was visibly surprised and rather impressed at Jim's ingenuity in resurrecting the violin. He smilingly called the repair "certainly unorthodox" but successful nevertheless, and offered Jim his compliments. And it took Ralph only a few seconds to diagnose the acoustic problem: the original sound post inside was fitting poorly and needed replacement.

A few weeks and $35 later, I had a new problem: the old fiddle plays better than the new one. In fact, it needs only a few further tweaks to make it a suitable backup instrument. Oh, it still sounds as it was originally built to sound -- somewhat thin and spare to my ear, lacking depth and resonance. But it plays light and nimble -- noticably easier than my Chinese-made model.

So in his first attempt at violin repair, Jim succeeded in bringing the pre-Civil War instrument back from the dead. His achievement is that I now have two violins, each with the opposite half of what I need. It seems that I may have reached the point in my playing when I must decide if I can afford to pony up the serious money necessary to step up to a superior instrument ~~ one that betters the best of both of these....