Restringing violin and Taping fingerboard

Who knew I would end up taking the task of restringing a violin and also taping the fingerboard of a violin.  I looked into taping the fingerboard of Graham and Charlie's great great grandfather's violin just so it is easier for me to play it.  For those that are new to learning how to play the violin, the colored tape lets us know where the notes are so we can position our fingers correctly. It blows my mind every time I watch a professional violinist play - how their fingers move so effortlessly to the exact notes!!!

Well, Graham's teacher had done it on his violin.  So... after watching a couple of online videos:

It looks pretty close to what Graham's teacher did (I think... Ha ha!).  Graham's violin is to the left:

And here is the violin that I had bought recently for Graham.  It's suppose to be the next size up for Graham (the 3/4) but I'm not quite sure about now.  Might be slightly bigger than that? Well, it came with really tight pegs and also a broken 'A' string. I also had to fix up the broken strap in the case - nothing super glue can't fix :-)

As for the tight pegs, I watched a couple other online videos and they talked about using regular soap! So here goes:

Tada!!! Instead of just putting back in the 'A' string, I also decided to restring all of the 4 strings. And this was after consulting my confidant a.k.a Graham :-)

I had previously asked for some assistance of a local group on the internet - as to whom was available to restring. There was a good response and a couple of the responses were to actually assist me in restringing it myself. So that's how this all came about! I posted my final handiwork back on the local group's website and they were all happy and impressed. Ha!

Voila! The sound from this violin sounds more full compared to Graham's.  I really wonder what the story is behind this violin as it doesn't have any markings on it. The lady said a professional used to play it. Hmmm...

And so again, with the help of a couple tuners, I managed to put some tape on the fingerboard. Makes you think I know what I'm doing. Lol!!!

I wonder if we still need to get a violin that's a size in between this one and Graham's current one. I may have messed up but if anything, this one is functional! Maybe I can sell it for more than I bought it. Although now the pegs are slipping vs. being too tight like they were before. I'm thinking that perhaps it needs new pegs. Shhhh...  don't tell Bobby of my online shopping obsession! ;-p