UG Fiddlesmith

I had the top off a fiddle recently in order to repair some cracks in the top and I was checking the back for any looseness in seams by tapping around the edges, etc. I was holding the fiddle by the neck and checking the different tones here and there and finally grasped the fingerboard from the loose end and discovered that the instrument went tone dead.  What is going on here?  The fingerboard extension beyond the neck seemed to be acting like a tuning fork.  I have heard of makers tuning the fingerboard but have never read any discussions of this.  Any help here?  Thanks

I had the top off a fiddle recently in order to repair some cracks in the top and I was checking the back for any looseness in seams by tapping around the edges, etc. I was holding the fiddle by the neck and checking the different tones here and there and finally grasped the fingerboard from the loose end and discovered that the instrument went tone dead.  What is going on here?  The fingerboard extension beyond the neck seemed to be acting like a tuning fork.  I have heard of makers tuning the fingerboard but have never read any discussions of this.  Any help here?  Thanks

An imported 3/4 bass came in for a new bridge and mention was made of a loose endpin.  The bridge was routine until I restrung the instrument and it kept loosing pitch; I happened to glance at the endpin only to find it working its way out of its hole.  Upon closer inspecation I found the tailblock to be less than 1" thick, badly worn and signs of failure were obvious.  I am not sure that fitting a new oversized endpin plug would do much good as I feel the tailblock is about 1/2 the thickness it should be to hold the plug.  I feel that a proper fix would be to remove the top and replace the tailblock with a new one at least as thick as the tapered portion of the plug.  I have removed more than a few bass tops and it is not a fun job and I think that the charges involved might surely exceed the cost of replacement.  As it stands right now I applied some hide glue to the endpin plug, wrapped it with a piece of 120 grit sandpaper and tapped it in place, and brought it up to pitch.  Although it is holding pitch now I don't think it is a permanent fix.  I still wonder about fitting an oversized plug and reeming the hole with a slight downward slant.  I hope to hear some good advice on this dilemma.

Recently a cello was brought to me as the fingerboard buzzed all over the place; it is an import and although it looked nice it was poorly finished and setup.  The fingerboard was flat most of the way up the neck towards the bridge then it sloped down a little more.  After removing the setup and nut and checking with straightedges I begun planeing until the entire fingerboard was flat its entire length; I corrected its profile  across the width.  I have done quite a few of these over the years and always used a 6" block plane, low angle, good and sharp and finely set but after 20 or so minutes of planeing I noticed my spokeshave in the tool box and wondered how it would work in working a concavity in the fingerboard and discovered that it worked faster and easier than a block plane.  I forgot to mention that the fingerboard was not ebony but some straw colored material that had been painted black.  It chiped a litttle in places that had sworles but when I got it to the shape I wanted I then switched back to the block plane and then a scraper and finally a few different grits of paper.  I found the spokeshave to have worked well, was more productive and less tiring than a plane.  The spoke shave I have is a Record with a flat sole and two adjusting nuts which made it easy to set it to a fine cut.  The cello doesn't buzz any more since I worked  a .9mm to 1.5mm concavity as per H. Strobel specifications.   Hope to hear from someone on this subject.

I have a German made Strad copy of about 1900 vintage; it has suffered from poor repair much of which I have redone but I want to fit corner blocks in the two upper corners as there appears to never have had any.  The lower corners appear to be full corner blocks.  I would like some ideas as to how corner blocks should be installed after the corner has already been glued up.  Thanks