Going through snapshots from the shop that have been waiting for some attention I ran across this one. These are the first bassbar clamps that I made back before I acquired some more sophisticated models from Alberti Design. These work pretty well, have adjustability (just add more rubber bands) and good directional pressure, depending on how you shape the gripping surfaces.  

We have landed in Hanoi and spent a week walking, eating and looking. There are apparently only one or two violin makers or restorers in the country, a good place to be a big fish in a little pond.

Newly arrived just in time for the warm weather, violinisto tee shirts.

I watched the neighborhood kids walking to school carrying backpacks nearly as big as the kids themselves, and realized that the summer is gone, at least on the calendar. In the last few days before Labor Day sounded the death knell of the season, Beth and I acquired a little haven on Lopez Island and I'm looking forward to building a little shop and a little cabin and eventually living the Island lifestyle.

The economy continues to be unfriendly to this shop but hope springs eternal and we look forward to finding homes for a few instruments this year.

Work on cellos continue. The picture below is of a bassbar glue up on a Bulgarian cello that turned out, when it was opened up, to be more of a kit that had been tacked together with glue than a finished instrument. All the linings have/had to be removed, reformed or replace and re-glued. It would have been quicker to build one from scratch.

Note the caul/pads added to the Alberti clamps to spread the load and adapt to the curve of the plate.

Two new instruments to look at in the gallery section; a Sanctus Seraphin and a Andreae Guarnari viola, 15-3/4" long.

Heading down to  the Old Time Gathering in Portland this weekend to play some music and visit violin shops. Traveling with at least four and maybe five violins so if you're in Portland and want to play one, look for the fiddler with too many cases. If you go to the gallery of available instruments you can see the one's I'll be carrying: Novinha, Quara, and Ela, as well as the two I usually play.

Here's the scroll I've been working on, a slightly scaled up version of an Andrea Guarneri  violin scroll to go on a viola.