A while back, I had taken one of my instruments to China on tour... unfortunately, during the tour, it was incredibly hot and humid which made for very sweaty rehearsals and concerts. Especially when we were performing in full tails and all that gear.

That did mean that there was some damage to the instrument that I was using. The combination of sweat and humidity, and the moving and rubbing of the instrument against my shoulder (even through a swatch of leather) meant that a good chunk of varnish was rubbed off and damaged on the back side of the instrument.

In fact, there was so much varnish that melted and was removed that the completely bare wood was showing! Needless to say, that wasn't really ideal... but whilst on tour, I wasn't able to have it repaired due to time constraints, lack of knowledge and trust of WHO to take it to, and the ongoing potential of further damage due to the continuing heat and humidity.

So, as soon as I had made it back to Europe, I did take it eventually to a luthier that I trusted... it did take a bit longer than I had hoped, as I needed to keep using the instrument, and the repair process would take several days. In hindsight, I probably should have just borrowed an instrument whilst this was being repatched... but I love playing on my own instruments!

Anyway, the luthier did a great job of cleaning out the dirt, sweat, and assorted grime and damage from the affected areas and in most places, the damage is completely unnoticeable. However, on the front side... the damage to the inked patterns in between the double purfling was too great, and so the ink designs are quite smudged in the areas where it would touch my chin and jaw.

However, recently... I was in the holding area off to the side of a stage, and we were bathed in blue light... and you could see the old damage in the unnatural light. These large dark smudges are likely due to the old existing damage and dirt that was impossible to remove from the wood grain... but only visible in the stark blue light. Actually, I'm not really sure why we were bathed in that light anyway....

So, an instrument that will have lasting but cosmetic damage from my custodianship... oops, but on the other hand, this isn't one of the really old ones... it is a modern copy of an old instrument... and I'm the first in the line of future custodians... so, I feel much better than if I would have presided over the destruction/damage of a centuries old artefact!

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