Hahahaha!

September 17, 2008 at 5:46 PM

I have just heard my favorite story. No really... the absolute tops, the ultimate anecdote!
'I thought I had seen it all until a customer walked into the shop with a violin packed with cooked rice. Someone told him to put rice in the instrument to clean it. Guess they forgot to tell him... dry rice... right out out of the bag.'
Thank you, Giovanni Gammuto, for dropping my jaw!

The rice trick is also a lovely non-invasive way to measure the resonant space inside an instrument. You don't have to pop the top off, you fill the box with rice kernels through the ff holes and then measure how much fit in.
Many makers swear by the air capacity of an instrument. Some vary their rib and arch heights so that the same overall number is always reached. An average of Golden period instruments' combined arch and rib heights is usually the ruler used.
Cooked rice! Oh, me, oh my...

From Patty Rutins
Posted on September 17, 2008 at 7:32 PM

My old luthier used to measure the air volume by pitch, as well.

Cooked... oof. However did you get it all out?

From Karin Lin
Posted on September 18, 2008 at 8:28 PM

AAAHH! Cooked rice?! Oh dear...

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on September 19, 2008 at 1:37 AM

Your other blog, about bad repairs; I've noticed repairmen of various kinds sometimes seem to purposely give you a hint that they aren't the best person for the job, and best to take heed. For example the repairman goes "What have you got there...ah...I see...you have two choices, either me, or Mike across town." That's a hint they don't want that job. If you make them do it, you're liable to find out why they didn't want to do it.

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Hahahaha!

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