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On repair and restoration

My first aim is to preserve the existing material as much as possible. Almost all old stuff now considered rare and valuable, once was common. But repairing a damaged part often is more time consuming than doing away with it and replacing it with a newly made part. A repair also should be easily reversible. No matter how carefully one works, there are always ‘fashionable’ operations that, from a later perspective, only detract from the value of the instrument. An untouched Italian violin from the 17^th century is nowadays almost hailed as a time capsule. I am therefore not an advocate of rebaroqueing early violins. Apart from the inevitable damage and loss of historical evidence, I deem the chance that the plate graduations are still original, fairly close to zero.

Finally one should strictly minimize the need for disturbing instruments. Each time you try to get off a back or belly, there will be collateral damage, no matter how small. So, if on closer inspection the defect stems from a deeper cause, the only sensible thing to do is to remedy the cause along with the symptoms.

The main consequence of this attitude could be a somewhat higher price for repair work than you have grown accustomed to. But, as a bonus, I always guarantee my repairs and restorations for the remaining of my working life.