Saturday, June 11, 2011

Tuning up

(AKA "Coming attractions for Pressing Needs")

So this week, i'm trying to juggle making new designs for the new shop, getting ready for a music gig next weekend, and, oh yes, dealing with Lyme disease...

What with all this, i haven't been quite as productive as i'd like, but i did manage to carve this new block today, and make an initial run of prints:
 It's the scroll of a fiddle - that part (i hope!) is obvious - but this particular fiddle is one i found at a local junk shop, and i stopped to have a look at it because it appeared to be basically sound, and because it always amuses me to see the ridiculous prices on battered instruments that just aren't that uncommon or valuable.  To my undying amazement, though, they only wanted $25 for this one.  I checked it for cracks, bad repairs, any sort of serious damage, and didn't find any, so i rang up the spouse (who's the fiddler in the household - i pretty much stick to winds) and asked if i should bring it home.

After a little care and feeding, it turns out to have a fairly decent sound; it was probably made in France in the early years of the 20th century.  With factory-produced instruments of that period, you get some that are junk and some that are really quite nice; at any rate, it's not a bad price for a spare fiddle.

My favorite thing about it?  The tuning pegs.  Between the four of them, there are three different styles of peg, at least one of which appears to be a hand-carved replacement.  The tailpiece made out of something very much like Bakelite is a close second, though...

2 comments:

vintage eye said...

Just beautiful! :)

Fripperie said...

Thanks! I just love that paper (need to go see if they have more of it at the art store...), but it also looks pretty good in brown ink on a creamy white, if i do say so myself. The fiddle had its performance debut last night, cross-tuned in G. Sounded quite good, actually...