I worked as a string-instrument repair tech (aka Luthier) seasonally during college, and then throughout the week for a couple of years after graduating. I got plenty of experience setting up, mending, and reconstructing violin-family instruments as well as guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, banjos, etc.

I started in instrument repair at the San Diego County Music Exchange when I was 17 and bought my first upright bass on a budget; the bass was damaged in shipping and I bought it at wholesale value from Lemur Music- only its neck completely snapped off, had no sound post or bridge yet, and the fingerboard was warped. After some on-the-job training and an intensive reconstruction, I took it to study music at university, and it's the same upright bass that I gig with to this day.