1950s Fretted Suzuki 4/4 Fiddle/Violin

Mr. Joel T sent-up a couple of box-o-parts fiddles a while back and this is one of them. Yes, I kept it for myself. While this doesn't have a label, I'm almost certain it's a Suzuki-made fiddle from the '50s or '60s as it has a "Made in Japan" mark and is more-or-less identical to a Suzuki-marked fiddle I had a few years ago. I really liked that violin, but because I play the instrument so infrequently I get pretty rusty on them and so sell them off.

I have a couple of shows that require some fiddling so I thought it was a good excuse to bring one of my intellectual instrument-modding goals (a nicely-fretted violin) to fruition. I dug around in my parts pile until I had the fittings all sorted-out and then set to work putting this in order.

Work included: a neck reset, popped-seam reglues, new soundpost (I used cedar), replacement (vintage) tailpiece, '60s Japanese guitar-style tuner install at the headstock, new bone nut, new tall fiddle bridge, general cleaning and setup, and of course the fretting and side-dots install on the board itself. I used "banjo" frets -- like "vintage" mediums in heft. They're a little bigger than you might expect and I like that about them -- one can get nice vibrato techniques with them and even a little sitar-like bending if desired. I think the mass and precision of the frets gives the instrument a lot of its clear-and-open upper-register voice.

Scale length: 12 3/4"
Nut width: 7/8"
String spacing at nut: 11/16"
String spacing at bridge: 1 3/8"

Lower bout: 8 1/4"

Upper bout: 6 1/2"

Side depth: 1 1/2"

Body length: 13 7/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: Japanese maple (figured)
Neck wood: maple

Fretboard: ebony w/streaking

Bridge: maple

Nut: bone

Weight: 1 lb 2 oz

Condition notes: minor wear and tear throughout, lots of minor scratches, and of course it's totally modified...

I went without a chinrest because I've taken-up playing the instrument lower on my arm/belly area. I'm still getting used to the adjustment but I think in the end I'll be happier with playing fiddle if I stick with it.

The '60s tuners are hideous and even more hideous because I cut them down so much, but I like to reuse as much random material as possible if it sort-of fits the vision. It would've been a bit more slick to use Gotoh Stealth tuners, though, wouldn't it?

The figured Japanese maple on the rear of the instrument almost looks like figured mahogany at a glance.