Home of RiverEdge Studio

The following are a some of the stories I have been working on for a few years.

My Autobiography (Sixty-five and Still Alive)

The Tale of The Sofa King Lost Hunt Camp

My Ups and Downs

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Something New

In 2020 the Covid-19 virus hit us all and we were kept away from most other people for a while. With so much isolation I decided to attempt a new endeavor, one which I have thought about for many years. About fifteen or more years ago a friend gave me a violin. It was just the body with none of the fixtures. No saddle, tailpiece, bridge, strings, bow, etc. It needed a lot of cleaning and parts so got into it and stripped the finish.

This is what it looked like before I started.

Original Condition

A luthier friend of mine mentioned that I should try french polish on it and gave me a small jar of the mixture. With a lot of help from the internet I was able to get a very nice finish on the old fiddle. I found the parts needed and ordered them on line. I made the saddle from a piece of black cherry, my first attempt at miniature carving. The bow needed to be re-haired and that turned out to be the most difficult part of this restoration. The fine tuners have been installed correctly but at the time I didn't know how they worked. For my first endeavor of this nature, it was a huge success in my mind.

Completed

I took it back to show the friend that had given it to me and he was impressed. He said, "You will leave it with me, my fiddle has lost it's neck and I have another one that needs work." So began another project. I re-finishe his old 3/4 fiddle and glued the neck back on, strung it up and took it back to him, along with the other one he sent with me. He died shortly after and I'm sure glad I got his fiddle back to him when I did. Oh yes, I got my original fiddle back.

That was the beginning of this journey and these are some of the other projects I have completed.

Norman Guitar - 1980 Model B-20

Second Fiddle Refinished

Missing Neck (before)

Refinished (with Neck)

My first real repair challenge

Completed Yamaha FG-130

Another old fiddle restored- (before)

After

It's now August 2, 2020 and I am just finishing up another Yamaha guitar. This one is a 12 string with some damage from an accedent. These are before and after photos.

Finished Yamaha FG-260

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It's now November 2020 and I am into another fiddle restoration. This one has a story.
When I was about fourteen I wanted to learn how to play a guitar. I went to visit Elwin MacMunn, a crippled
fiddle player that lived near my home to see if he could tell me who would help.
He offered to show me some chords and so for a while I would go to his house
and he would play the fiddle and tell me what to play. Eventually I got
the idea and have played my whole life. This past summer I was talking to his son.
He had seen the fiddle I had restored and he asked me to fix the broken fiddle his father
had played, and the same one he played when he taught me guitar. It was in an accident and
had some damage. Elwin had started to repair it but passed away before he finished.

This is what it looked like when I got it from his son.