Help.
- Emergency. - Hey guys, what's wrong?
Help.
Help, please.
Our baby...
Oh no...
Is he going to be okay?
Yeah look, he'll be okay.
But we're gonna have to open him up.
Oh my god...
I don't know if I can handle this...
And I bet the only way we can fix this is
by going inside and...
- Please save him. - No worries.
Alright, let's do it.
It's okay. It's going to be okay.
And it goes without saying, but don't do this at home.
That's right, it's a knife.
Ka-paw!
We're gonna have to open this violin up.
*gasp*
Doctor, but...
It's the only way to do it.
What is that?
But doctor...
The violin doesn't have health insurance.
Oh my god. Can you give us a discount?
Yeah, yeah... Didn't we have universal health insurance?
What's her name again?
A Cup of Cohee.
A Cup of Copee? Oh, what?
Cup of Copee.
- It's a Cup of Coffee. Yeah, it's a Cup of Coffee. - It's like a Cup of Coffee.
Look, it says Copie de Cappa.
- So we are calling Cappa Copie. - It's a Cappa Copie.
Oh my god, here we go.
So I use a knife
and I literally have to split the body off very carefully.
Where's the bridge by the way?
The soul, I thought the bridge was the soul.
- Yeah, it's - - It's got no soul.
Is it gonna be alright?
I hope so, yeah.
There's a spare bridge here.
A spare soul.
Spare soul.
We'll pop it over here.
Soul is watching on the operating table.
So...
Ooh!
Oh...
- Oh! - Oh my god. You're kidding me
Oh!!!
Ow...
Urgh...
Sounds like bones cracking.
Look at that.
- Like rib cage. - This one is actually opening really easily.
so sometimes they're quite difficult to open.
Oh...
But, it's so much louder because it's...
Did something just fall inside?
Oh no, someone threw a bridge inside.
What?
The soul is inside.
Oh no...
Is there like a life span
how many times an instrument can open?
Well, what happens after awhile actually
that so much of the edges goes missing,
that they actually have to replace like the double edges.
Okay.
So there's a tiny bit of damage...
- Look at it, he is cutting it. - That happens on the joints.
You have to be very careful,
especially when you're working on a
$500,000 instrument
or a million dollar instrument or something like that.
I can't handle -
- Oh! - Oh!!
- Woah! - Here we go, peeps.
There we go.
You can see this...
- Like the newness compared to... - Yeah. Yeah.
There's little, little bits where it's kind of cracked off.
But this -
The glue was really old, so it actually came off super easily.
This is the bass bar,
but this is actually not a good example of a bass bar.
It's really horrible.
It is chunky...
- Like it - So there's supposed to be - Chunky.
- Thicc. Thicc bass. - So firstly it is supposed to be
about six millimeters wide.
It's only seven that's - That's bizarre.
Okay.
Now this is supposed to have this
beautiful kind of curve to it.
Yeah, here's a bass bar that
actually has the right kind of shape.
So...
- So it has - It's very thin here. It's very thick here. - Oh yeah.
So here's the sound post on this side.
So, it looks a bit like...
Like this. It sits on the one side.
And on the other side, you have the bass bar,
so it strengthens...
Underneath the bridge like where the bridge sits...
But also it transfers...
So the vibrations go through like to the top plate...
And then they go into the bass bar
and it transfers all the way to these ends here...
And sets these two areas in motions.
Why is the bass bar on this side particularly?
Can it be switched around?
There's a lot more vibration that goes through
the bass side of the instrument,
- Got it. - than the treble side.
So you can see where the bridge is.
And if you turn underneath it,
you can kind of see how the bass bar...
Kind of sits under there.
It's like a flying saucer.
So if the bridge was the soul,
what would you say the sound post
- and the bass bar represent in the body? - Well, it's a tough -
It's a tough one actually because in many languages
the sound post is actually called the soul.
- Oh! - Ohh!!
Maybe both of them should be like the soul.
- Maybe one's heart, one's soul. - Yeah.
Hey, I like it.
The bass bar looks like a spine though.
This is an old French violin I'm working on
and it's had numerous cracks.
But here you can see what happens
if you open an instrument too many times....
After awhile, so they had to actually replace
half of the thickness of the top plate is actually new...
- ...timber. And the other half, this half is original. - That looks so nasty.
What are all those spots?
Okay, so these...
Basically they're little cleats
so they're little bits of reinforcement.
So where there was a crack...
Mhm.
They put some reinforcement in.
It strengthens it.
Once it's been glued, the cracks being glued,
so it doesn't open up again.
- If you have a lot of them it can affect the sound... - Like this?
But this is not a lot.
- Oh, really? - Oh!
This is not a lot, this is very few.
What is this little hole on the bottom?
This is okay...
Well... If this is the F hole...
Um...
*Laughs*
Well, that escalated.
I had a client who...
Had a problem with the endpin and my dad said...
Oh if you got a problem with the F hole again and...
The client said...
No, no this time it's the a-hole but...
Disclaimer. It's called the endpin.
Yeah, the endpin.
In case you realize we are not joking, it's there.
- There you go. - So it works like that.
Can I try it?
Should I go in?
Yup.
So that's the endpin.
Anyway, let's move on from that joke.
Cappa Copie is dying! Cappa Copie is dying!
Yeah. We're like on the operation table and like teehee!
So I have actually, um...
Look at this. There's like a little crack down here.
So there's like a little crack,
- so that's something I'll be needing to repair. - I see, wait, oh...
Oh, that's nasty.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's - That's what it looks like on the outside,
Woah.
Oh this - Yeah, so this is the saddle.
- Oh... - Oh, wait.
- Oh!!! - Oh!!!
Cappa Coffee!!!
Oh, that detaches off.
- Yeah, yeah. - Oh... I though he just -
This is again a bad example of a saddle like
it's supposed to be quite a bit longer.
So I have special clamps that I used to glue the crack.
So the clamp is like...
The stitching after surgery.
Yeah, that's it.
And if you have any other cracks.
Say there's also a crack here....
It's like braces.
Yeah, it kind of is, so...
Wow.
So once I am done with that...
So once I - I would put glue...
In a crack and then I'll - I'll...
Glue it up using...
So this -
This kind of clamp which pulls the whole crack together.
It's starting to look like a torture device.
- Yeah. - Yes.
When there's a crack right underneath the bridge here...
They put in this patch
which is called a soundpost patch.
It's literally carved out all the way
till just under the surface here.
So it's hollowed out underneath.
And then this piece of...
Timbers fitted in to that hollow.
- Takes about 10 hours to fit this one piece of timber. - Wow.
So there's about 27 to 28 kilos of weight
that sit on the top plate here.
So that's a lot of pressure and if there's a crack here...
The moment you put a bridge on that, the crack -
Even if the crack's glued and repaired, it'll open up again.
And that's why they do a patch
- underneath the sound post. - Wow.
Most Strads that you see would have
- sound post patches. - Really?
What about these patches
- like would it be a lot? - Yeah, so these kind of patches -
Yeah, there's quite a few.
And they just sit on the outside.
Whereas this one is actually carved into the top plate.
So it's hollowed - The top plate is hollowed out.
And then it's replaced with this new, new timber
Imagine an eight-year-old child
and having it standing on a Strad.
Oh!!
So theoretically...
If a child stands on that one point by himself,
the Strad wouldn't collapse.
No. No, that's right.
It wouldn't collapse?
If you gently placed it on there...
It could probably withstand that weight.
Our next video experiment.
Oh!!!
Guys, donate for a Strad...
We're gonna test the strength of a real violin.
But not a Strad.
My dad actually let that try it out.
So I had an instrument they wanted to destroy...
Wasn't worth anything and they just tested it out.
They stood on it top plate.
And it was totally fine.
- Like a full adult? - Yeah, yeah. Full adult.
- So like 60, 70, 80kg? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
That's right.
Well, then how do people break violins by sitting on it?
It's a sudden force.
- Yeah, I see. - I think it's the sudden force that it can't handle.
Because like when you put the strings on
you slowly raise it up.
If you slow - Gradually sit on it...
Another thing not to try at home.
Unless you bought your violin at Aldi.
Was that - Was that a bag-out to Aldi?
Look... Aldi has great veggies.
Yep. Next video guys.
Do you guys want to see what I do when I glue it up?
Yes, please.
Guys, look at that.
This little stray part.
Yeah...
Oh, that was sharp.
Just make sure he's okay.
You okay?
Uh no, I like to put my violins under before I operate.
Totally unconscious.
This is the top block.
Then the other side is called the bottom block.
Okay, and these are the corner blocks.
They just stabilize the corner a little bit.
Yeah, so that's the lining.
- Beautiful view. - But it's actually um...
It's actually coming off.
You can see it's actually opened a little bit.
So it has to be glued.
And what type of glue do you use?
- Is it normal glue from Aldi? - I use hide glue.
Actually - Oh, no, I don't use Aldi glue.
I've seen instruments glued together with araldite. It's the -
What is araldite?
So araldite is like this two pack glue.
It's like fiberglass.
And I've seen...
Like good Italian instruments glue -
Like cracks on good Italian instrument
glued with araldite and it's horrible.
Like you can't even get the stuff out.
So I use hide glue,
which is, it's actually made from animal hide.
This is my glue pot here.
- Oh. - And... this is my glue.
Guys, it's freshly grown....
Raspberries.
- Raspberry glue. - Yeah.
When I heat it up it goes soft.
Even the Egyptians use that kind of glue.
And also I mean, you know like even
Stradivarius would have used that kind of glue,
you know, 300 years ago, so that hasn't changed at all.
Let's just pretend I've repaired this.
Just get all my clamps.
This is really a torture chamber.
I would be putting my glue around the outside of all this...
Like using this brush.
And then put the top plate on.
- Oh... That's this. - Oh, that's cool.
So and then, I... Yeah.
- I use these clamps to move the - Hold it together.
instrument back together.
And you got to move quick right?
- Otherwise the glue will settle. - You've got to move...
You've got about a...
Maximum five-minute window.
- Oh!!! - Yeah.
Dude, it actually is braces.
Yeah, it kind of looks like braces, basically.
Eddy, would you do this to your own instrument?
No...
Oh, for the - For the bunk.
Anyway, so I'd leave the instrument like this
for probably overnight usually and
- then take everything apart - I see.
and it would be glued back together.
Wow.
Look at that, guys.
This is the finished product. Well, almost.
Yes.
The last stage of operations of the violin.
How long does it take for the glue to settle usually?
Maybe eight to ten hours?
- Or something like that. - Wow. Okay.
Have you ever had times...
Or know people that had times
that the glue just didn't work?
So if you know - If players play an instrument a lot you...
You perspire and then when you perspire, it...
It can wear off the varnish
and if the varnish gets worn off
and you keep playing the instrument for a long time...
The perspiration from the skin can
soak into the instrument and it soaked it literally that....
It's all saturated with the oils from the body.
And it literally won't glue after that.
It just - There's nothing you can do to glue it back up.
So it's usually up around -
Yeah, up around this area here.
- Yeah... - Up around here.
Yeah, so guys - Cause we hold the violins like this.
And so I always recommend that people
get that retouched as you know -
as soon as something wears off.
You - You just get it retouched, getting new varnish on it.
So that, yeah...
The perspiration can't affect the instrument.
That's the worst ones. Instruments from the tropics.
They just fall apart all the time.
Mhm.
Their glue isn't good for humidity.
So there you go guys.
It's short introduction to cracking open your violin.
Like I said, do not try that at home.
Yes. If you have problems with violins...
All the issues we mentioned, if you're concerned,
take it to a luthier!
Like Olaf.
Yes.
The violin studio.
We all laugh at it.
That's right.
And make sure they're real professionals.
Do your fact-checking.
- Yes. - Just don't go to any luthier.
Thank you for saving Cappa Coffee. Yeah
Yeah, no worries. I think he'll be totally fine
Alright guys, thank you so much for watching.
Please subscribe.
Check out the links below for Olaf's Studios
and also subscribe if you like the videos
and see you guys next time.
Okay, see ya!