Copy of Stradivarius violin 1

Violin owned by Odilon J. Drapeau

This violin was brought to me on January 15, 2024 by a gentleman that was holding onto this violin for the last three years. He had told me that Odilon J. Drapeau owned this violin and this was his second/spare violin.

Before I received this copy of a Stradivarius, I was told that the neck had to be glued on but I noticed that the neck was in fact on and sturdy. Maybe the person meant the bridge – which was not with the violin when I received it.

The nut was also missing at the front of the fingerboard and I am not even sure if the tailpiece I have is in fact for the 4/4 size violin. The tailgut seems to be too short for the violin – maybe it is for a different size violin. Besides strings and a bow that needs a restring, there was a chin rest which I am also not sure about. Apparently, the chin rest can go in two different locations but I am not sure where this one is supposed to go.

I had initially thought of just stripping the paint right off the violin and start over because the varnish on the soundboard wasn’t looking very good. I sanded the soundboard and some of the back and sides. Upon doing so, I found out that there are two cracks on the soundboard – one goes pretty much the length of the soundboard and another short one from one of the F holes.

At this point, the soundboard may need to be taken off to cleat the cracks. I need to check if the cracks have gone all the way through the wood.

* February 7 – the violin has been pretty much completed. I tried it out and it did sound pretty good to me but I would need an opinion of somebody that plays to get a better idea of how the top plate is holding up.

I carved an “Ebony” bridge for it but I have doubts if it is really Ebony. It doesn’t have the same feel to it when I carve the material. The nut I made from some leftover material I had from guitar builds. It worked out quite well.

The tailpiece was originally off of violin 2 but the tailgut gave out when I was tuning the strings. A titanium tailgut had been installed in place of the original.