Several years ago my Grandparents gave me a violin they had picked up cheaply at an auction. It was pretty trashed, but I had been renting an instrument and although this instrument was older and worn, it was going to save me hundreds of dollars a year.

I decided to take it to get cleaned up and have a few minor parts replaced. I found Calliers in the Old Green Hotel in Pasadena. I explained that I wanted the violin cleaned up and some broken parts replaced. I left the old violin and when I returned, I was handed an instrument that hardly looked like the one I had left. They had totally refurbished the violin. It was repaired and repolished. It looked not like a piece of trash, but like an instrument worthy of a master. And the price they charged me for this transformation was unbelievably reasonable.

From that day on, when ever the violin needs any sort of repairs, I won't take it anywhere but Calliers.

PROS: Amazing transformation, reasonable prices.
CONS: Hard to find. It's in the Old Green Hotel.