Jump to content
Maestronet Forums

Blogs

My links

Hello, and welcome to my introductory page! I'm a maker of violins, violas and cellos, and also specialize in sound adjustments. I'm also researching, teaching & writing about classic lutherie techniques. Graduate of The Violin Making School of America, Salt Lake City, USA, under Peter Paul Prier. Luthiers and shops I have worked with includes Samuel Zygmuntowicz, Brooklyn, and Christopher Reuning of Reuning & Son violins, Boston.

Torbjörn Zethelius

Torbjörn Zethelius

Progress...

Made good progress today. At lunchtime, went to the wood store, and although they disappointingly no longer have all that much violin-specific (mostly guitar, and also viola and cello), I did manage to get 2 sitka tops and 2 nice neck blanks. The tops are marked '91, and one of the necks is marked '93, so I consider these a good score. It'll be a few years, I'm sure, before I'll use them anyway. I also got my workbench brought inside and set up downstairs. Tomorrow I'll spend tim

Colleen McTigue

Colleen McTigue

Where to start? Well...

So... how does one prepare for re-entry into the world of the hobby luthier? Pretty much whatever is necessary and/or works, I guess. Issues facing me (that I know about): When I bought my current house 5 years ago, it was with the express intent of having a workshop in which to do stuff like this, which is what led me to buying the house I now live in. It has a one-car detached garage, which has a nice large workshop (complete with workbenches and shelves built-in) attache

Colleen McTigue

Colleen McTigue

Returning to the fold...

My name is Colleen, and I live in Ontario, Canada. Long story short, I made a violin some years ago (I worked on it in 2007-2009), and got a start on making a second one, but got waylaid by a series of life changes. Marriage ended, new start (moved twice), major surgery, back to school, etc. My life has stabilized somewhat, including my financial situation, so I once again have the time and inclination to make musical instruments. I make music as well, and lately I've been on a bit o

Colleen McTigue

Colleen McTigue

Long term rent

Trying to find the instrument for rent in the middle north west, in Iowa state. Most companies work with violins and cellos, but what about double bass. Might be somebody can recommend the owner of the double bass who can gives it for the one year rent.

Leluda

Leluda

my experience with Skinner

I would like to describe my upsetting and disappointing experience with Skinner Inc. in Boston. I am an orchestral violinist whose career and life's calling was ruined in April 2011 with the bankruptcy of the Syracuse Symphony, where I had been a member for 27 years. Since that bankruptcy I've been forced to look at changing careers and, approaching dire financial straits, I decided I needed to sell my old Italian violin, insured at a value in the 6 digit range. At the advice of colleagues

mhfais

mhfais

barryD Henrymitchell

Trying to reply to barryD's inquiry about Henry Mitchell. I am his grandson Clifford Duane Mitchell Jr. Henry's son, my father, Clifford Sr passed away 3-13-2009. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me cd_jr4@hotmail.com.

num1guitar

num1guitar

fecit or fake it?

I have my Dad's old and rather dirty violin which he used to play in the 1920s onwards. The label inside is invisible without using a strong torch. It reads, "Alessandro Gagliano alomnus Stradivarius fecit 1720 Napoli". Can anyone please give me any tips on how to discover if it is authentic or only a copy? I think many copies were made. Thanks Madog

madog

madog

Just trying to say hello

My new friend Jessup turned me on to this site..He is currently teaching me to build fiddles from the other side of the Continent...He said it was the place to learn from "Od-balls like him or the best of the best"..Any way, there should be plenty of reading for an old disabled fiddle player...Ron

ronwalker49

ronwalker49

PART ONE: The Future of Today's Young Artists

Today, because of better pedogogy and better instruments, our young artists, particularly our young pianists, are getting better and better. I can remember when the name "Horowitz" made the hair on your neck stand on end. No more though. And even Martha Argerich has been eclipsed by the likes of Valentina Lisitsa and Lang Lang. The Byron Janises and the Gary Graffmans of yesterday are no more than relics, nonetheless beautiful, for us to remember. The p

Unusual scroll

I have recently bought a violin at auction. It has a small (approx 3/32") bbevel on all edges of the scroll. I've never seen this before. Any inputs on maker?

hrobert

hrobert

Before and After

Before and After As with transforming anything that I have worked on, it has also been a transformation of self. From September 29th 2007, with the wish to have a cello to fix up for the house for guests to play, I unintentionally became a luthier. Early in October 2007 my eBay prize arrived. The neck was a little crooked, indicating a broken neck block and poor seams on the upper bouts. Had the paint stripper that someone had used in refinishing atta

Mountain Luthier

Mountain Luthier

Sorry for the long delay...

Well, it was a busy summer, and I didn't have much time for building or posting, because I was spending most of my time composing and recording music for a contest here in Canada. I didn't win, didn't even place, but it was fun working on it. And when the weather was good, which wasn't often, I was out flying my model airplane or brewing beer. Seeing that my last post here was June 4, reminds me of a joke: A grizzly bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender "Pleas

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue

Shooting for it...

Eventually I ran out of Tom Clancy novels, and got over being lazy, and in February 2008 I finally decided it was time to get back to the project. First thing I did was take a picture of where things were at: In the intervening 9 months, the back wood had straightened out, so I was ready to make another attempt at joining. Of course, I still didn't have a lot of experience with planing, nor sharpening, but I did some further research, including watching (many

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue

The Plane Truth

The garland was done, now to work on the plates. Back first, according to tradition. Of course, I've never done any real woodworking before, especially with hand-tools, so this is all new to me. Especially the sharpening part. Especially with planes. And planing a perfect edge... well, let's just say that learning curve is STEEP! Of course, I'd read a lot about it, and in terms of sharpening, I'd read the Scary Sharp website, and had a book from Stanley (Lord only knows how old, it might b

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue

The Mould and Garland

So now that I had a half-template, I was ready to make the mould and proceed. Oh, if only things went right the first time, eh? I guess they would, if I were working carefully and paying attention. However, the first mould I made from that aluminum template (that I had spent quite a bit of time preparing), knocked me down a peg or two. I spent an evening carefully marking out the mould and cutting it out, and the blocks, and getting everything all ready, THEN decided to take some measurement

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue

Violin Project - First Steps

Once I realized that I didn't want to use Heron-Allen's pattern for my first violin, I decided, based on advice from a number of MN'ers, to order a poster from The Strad and use that as a basis. The poster I chose was the Kruse, from 1721. While I was waiting for the poster to arrive (there was also a delay in ordring it, because the Orpheus website was down for a while at the time), I decided to make some more tools, since I knew I'd need them anyway. First up was a few planes. I decided to

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue

The Project from the Beginning

Okay, so I've decided to post the story of this violin from the beginning, including pictures. Don't worry, I don't plan to post every picture. I just figured it might be cool to have a record of this project where folks can see it if they're interested. I'll try not to post the boring stuff ("... and then I spent yet another hour scraping..."). Anyway, in January of 2007, I finally decided to go ahead and get started with this. I'd been thinking about it for quite some ti

Tim McTigue

Tim McTigue



×
×
  • Create New...