3-Piece Giardinelli Trumpet Mouthpiece where the shank was seized to the bowl section. Whacked it with a rawhide; wrapped it in silicone tape and tried to free it with a 2 pairs of pliers; froze it, then heated the bowl…nada….finally whacked it a few more times with the rawhide, grabbed it wearing 2 heavy rubber gloves, and it popped free. Cleaned the threads and reassembled.

Repairing 3 cracks in one of our rental violins.

Left Pic – 2 cracks in the top, on the lower right side
Right Pic – Small cleat super-glued to clamp. This cleat will be glued to the underside of the crack through the F-Hole. The super glue will pull away from the clamp, leaving the cleat glued underneath the crack

Left Pic – 2 Clamps w/cleats ready to go inside
Right Pic – 2 Clamps going through the F-Hole. 1 Clamp drawing the crack closed

Left Pic – Gluing a small crack near the F-Hole
Right Pic – Another view of same crack

Left Pic – Broken String Bass End Pin with part of it still stuck inside
Right Pic – How else would you get out a broken bass end pin….a valve slide expander, of course…

Left Pic – I just slid it in, tightened the knob to expand the end a bit, and pulled the broken piece out
Right Pic – Replacement end pin is too big; it will need to be trimmed down

Left Pic – Chucked up in the lathe and slowly trim down the taper
Right Pic – Checking with the calipers

Left Pic – almost ready to go…final fitting was done with a band sander