209 RSW Grandpas Mouse Hole Fiddle Part 1 

Hi Jerry; I have repaired a few instruments and built seven myself as a hobby only. My first project was a Checz violin in almost the same condition as this one, except the top was all the way loose and the back was about 90% loose. The finish was about 95% gone too, so I had to refinish it too. I was only in my 20's at the time (I'm 76 now). It turned out very well considering I knew nothing about instruments at the time. No one else could tell where the mouse hole had been when I got done. I played the instrument for over a year. That was the only time I ever played a violin. 11 years ago when we moved to this house the movers smashed it. My wife threw it out, she said because she knew I would be heart broken. I was heart broken when I found out she had thrown it out. At the time it was almost 200 years old and had been brought to America by my friend's grandfather. So I can understand someone wanting to repair a basket case. Thanks for your videos. Note: on the f-hole, I used masking tape and taped a piece of paper over the outside of the other f-hole and traced a pattern. Then I cut it out with an x-acto knife, turned it upside down, taped it over the patched f-hole and traced it on the patch. My old violin had a short crack on the base side of the tail saddle that opened up every winter when it got dry. I was planning to shorten the saddle a few thousandths of an inch after we moved. However; the violin got smashed during the move and my wife threw it away without telling me. You really did a great job on this old grandpa's violin. I really enjoy your videos.

I'm really enjoying these fiddle restoration clips now I've found them! Thanks for posting Jerry.

Jerry, I know you are too humble to say it yourself (or possibly, even agree with me), but you are truly a master artisan and a genius!! Love watching your creative problem solving and seeing you bring old broken instruments back to life with your care and love!! As long as you have a channel, I will be a life-long viewer!! Thanks so much for sticking through all the RU-vid BS and sharing your love with us!!

This is my second viewing. This time I was awed by your skill in repairing the mouse hole. Extraordinary craftsmanship, Jerry. STILL, U R D man. Thanks for sharing.

I just found your RU-vid channel yesterday. I played Cello when I was in Middle School, which was more than 25 years ago. I want to get back into playing it, I think. I have fond memories of playing, I remember really enjoying it. As an adult, I've enjoyed doing woodwork. Mainly, just making pens, cutting boards, and a really cool jewelry box for my wife. Watching your videos, I'm kind of wanting to find an old busted up cello to try rebuilding. It would probably end up taking me a year or 2 to fix one lol. Thanks for doing this.

I’m from Spain, so I’m not familiar with any accent. I just love the way you talk, work and explain your method. I even got myself a cheap fiddle to fix, restore and then learn to play. I think after watching you for a while that that’s the sweetest prize, a new canvas for new musical paths. Thank you, wherever you are friend, have a great day ☺️🍀

I watch alot of your videos, but since I play the violin I love them the most.... Thanks for sharing.

Jerry you are an amazing craftsman. A true artist your knowledge is wonderful. please keep your videos coming. Thanks

Hi Jerry; I'm watching this video yet again, I love it. My most recent build was an electric violin. The fingerboard I bought for it is inlaid with flowers, however; it was very thick and clunky. Remembering this video, I used my jointer and took the thickness down about 1.5 mm. That made it very nice and delicate. The whole instrument resonates so well that I can play it without amplification and hear it well enough for practice without waking my wife at night. Hope this comment finds you well. May god be with you.

Hide glue dries to form a crystalline structure, just like before you water it down to use it. That brittle-ness transfers more energy from the top plate into sound, which is another reason why hide glue remains the classic adhesive for fine string instruments. I love your videos, Jerry.

I cannot believe how much work you put into this. This video gives me hope that one day I will repair that poor little fiddle in our 'bone pile' at the shop.

Your right on the money Jerry! I've had people state that hide glue sounds better. I guess they need better sounding glue instead of better sounding wood!! I always used Original Titebond and I've pulled fretboards from my mandolins with no issues. Jerry you're a true master and are welcomed down in Tennessee any day!

Thank you for another great video. When I se you work on a violin, it brings back memories of my own grandfather who was a violin maker. So thank you so much for bringing back those memories. Cheers from Norway.

Dear Jerry,discovered your channel about 2 weeks ago&just wanted to say THANKS!You're a great inspiration,love your work& the way you present it.Still a very honest DIY attitude in it.Great to know you're out there...

I saw Part 2 first and there is where you will find thank you and compliments.

You're really imaginative and creative in order to nail down all theses problems and I really love your idea how to flatten the top in order to glue the parts together Hats Off sir !

I always learn something from your videos, Jerry. Thanks for being my teacher in this craft.

Totally magnificent from the repair to building your own tools. You simply amaze me every single time.

Great work as always mr.jerry!! The first good mandolin I got when I was playing mandolin when I was a kid was a 50s Gibson F something other,definitely not an F5 haha had no most of the label was missing,could make out the Gibson and hand written “F” but that’s it. It had a mouse hole in the top on the bass side F-hole. I played it like that for years,I finally fixed the mouse hole a couple years ago. My hands don’t allow me to play mandolin a whole lot anymore but I still keep it. One go these days I’m gonna build or have me a custom mando built with a wide neck on it. I enjoy the hell out of your videos mr.jerry,it’s always a pleasure to see how other repairman go about a job or to get ideas,I love your repair videos and your build videos,you build some beautiful looking and sounding mandolins. And that guitar you built for your brother is truly a work of art. As for the glues,I use the hell out of titebond original for a lot of stuff but on vintage repairs I prefer to use hideglue when I can. When I need a bit more open time I use a good fishglue from Lehigh Valley Tool company. Just a personal preference for me personally. Nothing wrong with titebond,I buy it by the gallon and I got a couple different sized gluebots that use the hell out of. When I’m gluing up tops and backs I use titebond,all of my laminated necks are glued up with titebond. Braces,bridges,finger boards I use hide or fish glue. Again,just my personally preference.

I don't even play violin, but I enjoy your restoration techniques and your raconteurial speaking style....sort of reminds me of Wil Rogers.

Great work. I think the mouse hole gave it character.

Another innovative work Gerry, never seems to amaze me with your very creative techniques of devicing special tools which you normally cannot find in any hardware store, impecable job there 👍

Now hold on there, Mister. Of all the amazing things you do in these videos, repairing instruments, building instruments, singing, playing and composing music, to me this takes the prize. Threading the rod @ 7:40. Until I started watching your videos, I never knew what a "die" was or what it was used for, although I had seen the round die you held up for the camera many times in hardware stores. I thought that threading solid steel could only be done at factories using very hard steel, tremendous pressure and precision. And there you are, blythely turning that die--and reversing it!!!!--to thread that rod, as though you were at a Sunday picnic. I was thunderstruck, gobsmacked and generally knocked side ways. UUUH-mazing. U R D Man!!

Great repair Jerry. Can wait to see the second part. All the best Gilbert👍

Always informative and Really enjoy hearing some of the music you and your friends are performing.

Another way you could support Jerry and this channel would by through his Rosa String Works online store. I recently bought a couple shirts and they're comfortable and look good. I needed a new tshirt anyway, so it works out well for the both of us. I always agree with him when he says 'It's not easy being me.' and I feel like that pretty often myself, now I have it on a t-shirt to confuse everyone around town with. Well, I guess I could potentially wear it around town if things ever get back to normal.

f hole repair looked really good Jerry, oh and I don't care what kind of glue you use. thanks for the videos

Another amazing fix up. Can't wait to see Part 2 :D

Great work. Jerry you are a very good at what you do. I like the way you repaired the S- Hole in the front of the fiddle. It was a pretty neat way to repair it. Amazing work. I will look forward to the next video. I hope you have a blessed week.

That little bitty plane is an awesome tool.

There was this spongy tube thing on my guitar stand and it did the same thing to my bass finish. I put some painters tape on places of contact on the tube and that fixed it. Great tune by the way. English is not my first language so I apologize for mistakes.

Love your videos. I've even used a hint of some techniques in my handyman/jack of all trades master of NONE life. I am happy to have joined the gang on Patreon as well. Thanks for doing what you do.

You do wonderful work. Looking forward to part 2.

Awesome luthier work.You know how to show detail in a practical way, to where people can understand it.

Excellent work! Look ever so to part 2. I can't play an instrument,but I love the wood working aspects. Oh I an play a radio. lol. Keep'm coming and I will keep watching.

you luthiers amaze me with what you can do.

I bought a glue pot about 30 years ago. Hide glue has been very handy in my general woodworking. I also use it for building and repairing violins and cellos. One of the huge benefits of hide glue is that it shrinks as it dries (and can therefore pull a joint nice and tight). An old furniture makers trick is to use hide glue without any clamps. Think triangle blocks in chair or table construction. Apply the hide glue; "rub" the piece of wood into it's location until the hide glue gets a good grab (doesn't take long); let go of the block -- no clamps needed and it dries down tight. If you need to be convinced about the way hide glue shrinks and pulls tight, google "glass chipping with hide glue." I have used gallons of titebond over the years and will continue to do so. You really should consider using hot hide glue. Working temperature is 140 to 150 degrees and it cools rapidly so the heat isn't an issue. My most creative use for hide glue was as a substitute for theatrical "spirit glue" which is nasty stuff. I used hot hide glue to attached wrinkled tissues to my wife's face when I was making her up as the wicked witch of the west. It worked beautifully and removed easily with warm water.

Jerry you never cease to amaze me

Hi Jerry, Ian the luthier in Tasmania here. I have always thought that wedges are important as other clamping methods and I admire your inventiveness :-)

The size of a Two-by-four! That made me laugh out loud. ... I like those delrun clamps and the plastic tubing is a pretty slick idea, though I was totally surprised with it's reacting with the finish.

how you repaired that violin was magic, really well done !

liquid hide glue... Jerry you being fibbing about that glue... LOL I can't believe you brought it back from the dead.

I love your lateral thinking Jerry

Fine work my friend. I need to get back on my violin repair just to get it out of my shop but I've got a lot of other priority stuff happening. Those clamps are a great idea.

I love the Woody Woodpecker & Alvin and the chipmunk sound effects Wow Jerry you bring that old fiddle back to life can't wait to see part 2

Awesome work Jerry!

You got an interesting profession. Dealing with what pops out of the box.

A basket case for sure. Nice work.

My grandfather told me about a fiddle that his uncle obtained in Tennessee during the Civil War that had a label in it with the name "Guarnerius" in it. He said it was a real nice sounding fiddle that his uncles and father all played, and that the last time he saw it was when he was visiting a cousin in nearby Hanover, Indiana. He told me the old fiddle was standing in the corner of a closet, and that a mouse had chewed a hole in one of the F holes.

Great work Jerry 👍

It looks like you are going to breathe new life into that old fiddle!

Jerry, this was very cool!

My grandpa was once telling me about the fiddle his dad and uncles used tp play. It had been obtained in Nashville during the civil war by one of the uncles, and had a label in it with the name Guarnerius on it. (A copy I'm sure) he said that it was played often during family get togethers, and was the first on he had ever played on. He said that the last time he saw it was at a cousins house, sitting in a closet, and a mouse had chewed a hole in one of the F holes.

You are totally right about Tightbond... it comes in 3 formulas, Tightbond 1, the regular stuff, is completely removable with heat and moisture, just like hide glue. The only advantage of hide glue is it cured ‘harder’ but its bear to use with a hot pot and limited working time. My family did furniture repairs among other things... and being their helper, I have used every glue and epoxy you can imagine. Jerry is right about basic Tightbond Tightbond-3 is different glue and much harder to take apart later. Its a water resistant polymer, not for most luthier work... however, to build up slabs for a solid body electric guitar, it may be the best ‘Permanent’ choice. Love your vids Jerry, learning with every one, should be ready to tackle great-grandads guitar by summer.

Hurray! More fiddle work!

Amazing work Jerry,as usual

I love watch your video recording good job work

Mittenwald was/ is a great & famous area in Germany for Orchestral Instruments, it will no doubt be very well seasoned wood & of excellent craftsmanship, especially so if 60-70 or 80 yrs old.

I liked the mouse hole. It gave the fiddle character.

Thanks for making these videos! It's really satisfying to watch people with your level of expertise practice the craft they've mastered. At the 14:00 mark, you speculate that the vinyl tubing around the clamps might have chemically reacted with the finish. That's probably what happened. Vinyl tubing has a plasticizer in it that makes it pliable -- otherwise it would be as hard as PVC pipe. The plasticizer can migrate from the vinyl into other materials if they are in contact with each other for too long, and since shellac and nitrocellulose chemically have a lot in common with plastic, the plasticizer will soften and weaken them, too. You can research "plasticizer migration" if you want to know more, but it's a super boring topic.

Amateur bass luthier and really enjoy your videos. I have gotten some great tips from your videos.

Beautiful, thank you!

Hi there, I can imagine that what you saw with this instrument was a fix NOT using hide glue. A violin is a box with different woods glued together. They shrink and expand differently. You want the glue be the weakest spot. If your top and bottom sit "like iron" on the sides the weakest spot will be - the wood. Especially the soft spruce top will crack all over the place. That's why you even want to use just a little bit of hide glue (actually the right amount, of course).

Happy you give the mm measurements, because those thousands and sixteenths are a mystery to me

you should be very proud of your restorations I know im proud to watch you restore these instruments ,I have only restored guitars oh and 1 banjo but that dosnt count lol dang thing ,good thing it was mine (wall hanger )im the samr way as far as glue titebond is the best in my opinion

Vinyl has softeners that react to certain things, melting things like lacquer. If you can smell the plastic, it most likely will do unwanted things as a rule of thumb. Surgical or food grade silicone might be the safest choice, followed by other food grade plastics.

I love the mouse hole ! It was charming....

Nice work!!!

Wood is just such a fun material to work with :-)

i enjoy watching you do your magic on these old instruments. i can't hardly believe what youtube has been doing lately,i can see why they go after the planet x and chemtrail people but i really can't see why they would pick on you

Jerry, vinyl is polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The stuff is pretty rigid. In order to make PVC flexible, plasticizers, among them octyl pthalate, are added to the product. Those additional chemicals could easily interact with the instrument's finish. Maybe "viton" tubing is better. "Viton" will misbehave around acetone, MEK, & "banana oil".

Jerry I was gonna chime in and tell u that I put a piece of clear tubing on my spool clamps - but then you did it b4 I could LOL

skilled worker you are .thanks

Hi Jerry. Kind of makes mine look like a kindergarten project. Watching with fascination.

A bit of waxed paper under the tubing should do. Great video, made me late for work. Time to become a patron.

great work thanks.

boy I got crucified for using Titebond instead of Hyde glue on an old violin lol but I would do it the same way again if another violin comes here. very nice work Jerry!

Nice work

Looks like a fun repair . . . your right about hide glue, the devil to use, don't know why I use it.

I persenaly would have kept the mouse hole. Seems like it "fits" the fiddle just fine. GREAT WORK on this wreck!

Thats a trip...my Great-Grandfather's name was William Lewis

Great job! I have the theory that the “mouse hole” was actually caused by grandpa trying to get that 2x4 sound post in there. :)

It is like reading a good book with many exciting chapters. You encouraged me to correct the neck angle of my guitar. I was not so brave to separate the entire neck, but following one of your videos I've partially separated the back in the area around the neck. Not sure if I ruined this guitar in terms of sound quality (rather not), but at least the neck is now in correct position :)

Brilliant work! :-)

I agree on the glue. Used it on a bamboo fly rod I built. Pleased.

very nice work

I can't believe how much I enjoy watching your videos. I've watched a lot of "repair" videos on stringed instruments but wow, yours are miles above the others. The ingenuity and care that you put into those instruments just blows me away. I open RU-vid, your channel pops up in my recommended, and the next thing I know I've been watching for 2 or 3 hours. There is so much honesty and sincerity in your voice that it actually seems to find it's way into the instruments themselves and makes them better than they were originally. Also, the tune "Mandolin Wine" is an amazing piece of music. Is there possibly a link to the entire piece? I found myself going backwards into the video again and again just to listen the short clips of it. And what 5-string is that on the banjo break? That is one sweet and crisp sounding banjo. I wish I could give you more than just one "thumbs up". So, on to part 2.

Genius clamp idea!!!

On the hide glue, this is what I was told. It happened when I obtained an old reed organ a long time back and decided to rebuild it. I purchased a book on rebuilding them and it had a section on glue. It said the problem with yellow carpenters glue is that the water in the glue absorbs into the wood and can deform the joint. Whereas this isn't a problem for most applications, when dealing with repairing instruments it is preferable to use hide glue that cures instead of dries. This supposedly prevents less deformation of the wood. The other reason is of course you can loosen the bond with just heat and do not need the additional moisture needed to break the bond with carpenters glue. This makes a difference when you are dealing with a very old instrument such as the reed organ I rebuilt. I found the repairs that were done with carpenters glue much more difficult to undo than the hide glue and the old wood (this organ was built in 1891) of the organ soaked up water like a sponge which caused me trouble later on trying to refit the top of the reed board as sections had swelled and I had to plane it back flat to get an airtight seal. So I invested in a glue pot. Don't like using it but whoever rebuilds that organ again in another 100 years will thank me.

Jerry I am new to the channel and I am really enjoying the videos.

The german luthiers school is in Mittenwald, therefore its a huge hotspot for instruments of all grades

It seems like Titebond would be perfect for the back center seam. That’s the one that has no business coming apart.

Unbelievable - more magic!

Useing fresh sandpaper imo is a very smart move. sandpaper no.mater what brand I prefer 3m or Norton always cuts better new.uused paper is like trying to use a dull plane in compared to useing a very sharp one.

Needle nose plyers with those brad nails -Makes seeing what your doing easier and fingers are grateful

Howdy! I would never got an idea for Many of your methods... Just proves that you are a real Master builder, and you Have a ton of experience... While i am Just a huge fan of your Work...! Greeting from Croatia

Very nice work Jerry! Looking forward to part two Jim

Good honest man, i would trust him although, I disagree regarding use of wood glue. i have no doubt that wood glue is stronger and that it can be undone, but, the issue is that hide glue comes undone at the appropriate stress whereas wood glue will cause cracks rather than seams coming loose, i'd rather a loose seam that is easy as anything to fix

Love your work, man! For the f-hole you built, could you not have traced out the other one and mirror that on the one you were fixing? Also have you got any videos where you do a full re-finishing? It is always rad watching your stuff. Greetings from Cape Town

sumting i thinking with looking at the dip along the crack you mentioned : i think you could put a line of smal woodscrews under the crack and use them as small jacks to lift the part up underneath the crack