Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 220
Scan 220
Old violins, 1905
12 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 198. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER XIV
3VIOLIN TREATMENT
5The notion that the more a fiddle is knocked about the better it is, is similar to the theory that the more you knock about a horse the better he goes.
7A good horse will take a great deal of spoiling, and so will a good fiddle. Your well-bred beast, even when broken down, if you turn him out to grass and attend to his ailments, will recover marvellously, and so will a violin, if you glue him up, readjust his nervous system, keep him dry, and coax him a bit.
9The delusion that a fiddle is all the better for being maltreated is due to this:—Many people observe that their old, battered, disorganised fiddles, which went into the skilful repairer's hands sounding like tin kettles, come out with the true Cremona timbre; but that, my deluded friend, is not in consequence, but in spite of the knocking about to which your favourites have been exposed.
11The fiddle-doctor has attended to your violin's internal economy, and gently healed its bruises, killed the wolf or fiddle stomach-ache from which it was suffering, glued tight the rattling back, ribs, belly, fixed the loose sound-bar, and readjusted your Cremona's
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