My dad had to even set up a metal turning lathe to get the proper taper for the tuning pegs reamer. He then had to turn down the pegs themselves to match the taper of the reamer. It all worked out pretty well. That is until we forgot to put some peg lubricant on the pegs. After about two weeks of inactivity, I went to turn the pegs only to find out that they had seized in their respective places. Fortunately three of them came out by hand, but the fourth required a pair of pliers to get loose. I remember sitting there praying that the pegs would come out without ruining the neck. We were lucky. So...don't forget to use peg lubricant.
We spend quite a bit of time tuning the sound board. Tap, tap, sand, sand. Finally, after a few weeks of this, we admitted to ourselves, that we had no idea of what we were doing. I guess we got lucky, because Cynthia has a beautiful balanced voice. Use a genuine spruce sound peg.
The painting, or varnishing took 16 coats of a special varnish that is imported from Germany. There are two kinds, spirit based, and oil based. We chose the oil based type. The first couple of coats left me with a feeling that we had made a mistake. Many brush marks, and not all that glossy. But around the 9th coat things started to look better.
If you like to sand, and carve, and fit wooden things together, then this is the type of project that is just perfect for you. This project, made me much more in touch with my instrument, and gave me much more insight as to what goes into making the traditional sound of the viola.
I've been fortunate to play Cynthia for just about two years now. She's something I'll always have with me. Something to enjoy all my life. A friend.