DIY Viola repair?

September 6, 2009 3:55 PM

Best way to go about fixing a viola nick.

I dropped the music stand on my wife's viola and it made a small nick on the edge that goes around the top face of the instrument (forgive my lack of knowledge on terminology). A bit of material is missing. Can we attempt to fix it ourselves or should we take it in? This is a high quality instrument that cost a lot of money.
If we can fix it ourselves, what do we need to order? Note that I used a bit of wood coloring on the nick to make it look less obvious but we want to make it look better.

Here's a picture of the area nicked.

posted by spacefire to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

Take it to a luthier.

Unless this is a student instrument and only cost you a couple grand, do not try to fix it yourself. As a string player, this question strikes me exactly the same way it would if somebody said, "I need to remove my wife's appendix. I tried to do it with a butter knife, but that didn't work real well. What supplies do I need?"
posted by Netzapper at 4:07 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seconding Netzapper. For a quality instrument, the cost of doing it right is made up by retained value. Hard to tell from the description whether there is damage to the purfling as such, but this is a job for a pro.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:26 PM on September 6, 2009

From the picture, it looks like the nick is not so deep into the purfling. It can probably be filled.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:28 PM on September 6, 2009

In that position, it's more than just a cosmetic repair. Maybe some thinned glue painted in the dent.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:30 PM on September 6, 2009

I'd leave it alone completely until there is a pressing need to make the Viola look brand new - ie, resale.
posted by fire&wings at 4:39 PM on September 6, 2009

I'm laughing at Netzapper's response. Completely agree -- take it to a luthier. I'm surprised that your wife owns a high quality instrument and this was even a question to her, unless she is herself an amateur luthier. I doubt it will be expensive, and anyway, cultivating a relationship with a local luthier who knows you and your instrument is invaluable (in a way that advice from Strangers on the Internet is not).
posted by telegraph at 4:59 PM on September 6, 2009

I doubt it will be expensive, and anyway, cultivating a relationship with a local luthier who knows you and your instrument is invaluable (in a way that advice from Strangers on the Internet is not).

My guy, who is halfway across the country ('cause I play upright bass) would probably charge like $30 for that repair, by the way. And he'd probably have it done in twenty minutes.

The reason to use the luthier is that she has just exactly the right glue, the right paste, the right varnish. Using super glue or some shit is going to kill the value of the instrument. Just murder it. For instance, when I first bought my bass (for more than my car is worth), I immediately had them remove and rerepair a number of dings that had been filled with regular carpentry putty. They were, on a moral level, wrong.

I'd leave it alone completely until there is a pressing need to make the Viola look brand new - ie, resale.

It looking brand new is not the issue. A string instrument is not like, say, a trombone, where the closer it looks to how it rolled off the line the better. It's more like an antique, where the little dings and scratches it's received constitute character. Because, if it really is a high quality instrument, it didn't roll off a line. A single master luthier and his or her assistants built the instrument by hand over the course of days or weeks. It should be different from all the other ones. A string instrument is unique.

However, what is vital is that the instrument look as if it was maintained over its entire lifetime. That it was treated with respect.
posted by Netzapper at 7:35 PM on September 6, 2009

String teacher here: take it to a luthier if the instrument is worth more than a couple hundred bucks. If money is tight, is a billion times better to leave something like that unfixed (looks like it's only cosmetic) than to fix it badly and then have to undo AND fix later when someone wants to do it right. Trust me, it always gets fixed badly.

I *just* finished giving a speech to my beginning 6th graders with school instruments that goes something like, "Okay. So! You bumped the cello and something is wrong. Your dad wants to fix it. What do you do?" Correct response:....well, you can probably guess.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:50 AM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Leave it alone unless it really bugs her. It's a small mark and frankly I've seen worse, on much nicer instruments. If it really bugs her, get a profressional to fix it.
posted by awfurby at 1:26 AM on September 7, 2009