Loose endpin on an electric violin

[Bogdan Stanciu]

Hi again!

Our shop just recieved an Antoni electric violin with the following problem - the endpin holding the tailpiece in place came loose. The wood on the thing is awful and the wood screw holding the whole assembly in place is too short for the job.

I was thinking of drilling a larger diameter hole (but not going through the body) and glue some sort of hardwood dowel, level it with the body and then re-screw the tailpiece in place with a larger wood screw. The whole fix would be basically invisible because of the endpin covering it and also the tension would be spread more evenly because of the larger surface. Someone suggested I just mix the glue with wood chips and cover the hole.

Would any of these be a good fix? The latter seems like too little, considering how bad the wood is.

Thank you in advance!

Bogdan

[Øyvind Taraldsen]

Gluing in a hardwood dowel should work, this repair is sometimes used on electric guitars if the strap buttons rip out of the wood.
I would not do a mixture of glue and woodchips, since the screw will be subjected to alot of tension, and in most cases using glue as a filler is not good for structural applications.

[Mark Wybierala]

I don't know if this will apply to your situation. On a solid body guitar, if the strap button hole is stripped, I just take round toothpicks, wet them with titebond and put them in the hole. I put enough in the hole so I need to apply a bit of force to get them in and the amount of glue is enough to insure that every surface of the toothpicks are covered and there will be no dry wood against dry wood. I install the strap button immediately with the Titebond still wet. I do not predrill a hole of any sort and I push the screw right into the center and begin screwing it in. The taper of the wood screw compresses the donor wood and glue quite a bit. I have never had a problem with the metal screw becomming glued or bonded resulting in a difficulty in unscrewing the screw later on and except in the most serious of damaged holes, I believe that the repair is totally able to take the normal strain of a strap in use. I know that it sounds barberic but it works and takes less than a minute. Generally the same process is used for pickguard screws too. I would never recommend something like this on a thin piece of wood such as the side or top of an acoustic instrument but with solidbody instruments it works just fine and I think that the new hole is probably much stronger. I also wouldn't suggest using anything other than a traditional carpenter's glue of the same family as Titebond.

It is odd that an even an electric violin would have anything other than a traditional violin endpin and that there is a screw involved. For something like a traditional violin endpin, I would use a traditional means of doweling in place donor wood in the proper grain orientation, letting it dry, drilling, and creating a new tapered hole for a traditional endpin which is not glued in place.

[Steve Senseney]

I don't do violin repairs, but I thought that the the traditional violin fix on this would be to shave a thin curl of maple, glue this in with hot hide glue. Use a tapered plug covered with something so it does not get glued into place. After the glue is dried, ream the hole again.

I understand that the Antoni electric violin may be an entirely different design. I googled images, but don't know what is in the end pin area.