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Cardiff Violins started life as a workshop, originally servicing musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Welsh National Opera, local amateur players, teachers and music students. Today, the workshop is still very much at the heart of our activity, with all our customers’ instruments dealt with in-house. When you bring an instrument to us for advice on set-up, repair and restoration, you will be met by a member of our workshop team, who will give your instrument a full assessment. But please call for an appointment with a luthier as they can organise their work around the time of your arrival (some jobs cannot be interrupted). We offer the following services:

Routine maintenance:

Fitting new pegs

Any or all of the following work may be needed:

  • Cleaning
  • Gluing edges
  • Peg fit (standard pegs or Wittner Finetune-Pegs)
  • Fingerboard shoot
  • Bridge replacement
  • Re-fitting of the nut, saddle and fingerboard
  • Fingerboard shoot
  • Fitting new strings
  • Tonal adjustment

Restoration:

This includes all the work needed to bring an instrument back to playing condition after deterioration due to age, lack of care, playing, storage in damp places, worm damage, etc. This may involve any or all of the following:

  • Making and fitting new top block
    Resetting proper neck elevation
  • Crack repairs
  • Retouching varnish
  • New blocs
  • Rib shortening
  • New bass-bar
  • Tonal adjustment
  • Recovering shape and alignment
  • Rib shortening
  • Resetting-up
 

Repairs

This includes all the work needed when an instrument has been broken in an accident. It may be any or all of the following:

Making neck graft
  • Neck graft
  • Scroll repairs 
  • Sound-post patches (belly and back)
  • Peg box repairs
  • Resetting proper neck elevation
  • Crack repairs anywhere on the instrument 
  • Retouching the varnish
  • Resetting up
  • New bass-bar
  • Tonal adjustment

If your instrument has been damaged in an accident, please contact your insurance company immediately to proceed with a claim. You will then need to bring your instrument to us for an estimate. The quicker you act the quicker you can get your instrument back. However, repairs can sometimes take a long time. If you are insured with one of our partner insurance companies, we will lend you an instrument whilst we repair yours. If you are not insured yet for your instruments, do not wait for an accident to happen. 

 


Set Ups

Our set-ups can include any or all of the work below:

Carving a violin bridge

  • New set of pegs fitted, either wooden or Wittner Finetune-Pegs, or existing pegs repaired
  • Nut corrected or replaced to achieve correct string height at the nut end, proper spacing between the strings, and comfort when playing
  • Fingerboard shot or dressed in order to achieve correct string clearance, stop buzzes, and remove any unsightly grooves in the ebony
  • Bridge fitted to achieve the correct string height, comfort when playing, and a balanced sound
  • Sound-post adjusted or replaced
  • Tailpiece fitted with correct measurements
  • New strings fitted
  • Instrument played and tonally adjusted in-house prior to being picked up by the customer