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Had lots of restring jobs today, Clean frets & fingerboard, oil fingerboard, fit strings & adjust trussrod as needed, basic stuff but can make a real difference to sound and playability.

Tristan’s Dalalaika is finished and sounds like nothing else I’ve ever heard, everybody wants to try it. He may be on to something. Raining and humid all day which are not the best working conditions but things get done as long as we pace ourselves.

Had a 5 string Crafter acoustic bass in for set up, sounds surprisingly good for its price, of course a good set of Picato strings helps.

Tristan has been working on something strange for his design degree – a Dalalaika. A cross between a dulcimer and a balalaika, we are all intrigued to know what it will sound like.  Had 3 electric fiddles in at once for setup/repair. One is a new chinese stick fiddle and it needs the works, pegs, strings, bridge, even the pagbox needs more clearance for the strings cut out, but the customer paid £30 for the whole outfit so he seems happy to have the work done.

Another week begins and we carry on with the work. The sun is shining here today and everything is relaxed. Bradley, who is doing work experience with me, is currently fretting a classical guitar which he fitted the bridge to last week. I am working on an interesting old violin which has the neck out of line.  A more difficult one to reset than normal as it has a ’saxon’ neck which is more like the slipper heel construction of a classical guitar, but it had a good tone when it came in and I expect it to be even better when finished. I shall crown the button in order to compensate for the new neck alignment.

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