Luthiers International Inc.

[MikeH]

I am presently sitting at my computer and waiting for glue to dry on a fiddle in the workshop and I am getting an idea which may interest the more practical amongst us.

Does anyone relish the idea of actually making an instrument from scratch, between ourselves, using our own resources - by post?

What I have in mind is that I would supply the materials, (I've got lots of nice wood) and undertake some preliminary work then post the whole lot to someone else to carry on further work.

Does anyone think this might be feasible? Does anyone have any further ideas? It would require some careful coordination to get it right!

If the instrument ever got to be finished we could possibly sell it on Ebay, as something genuine, and donate the proceeds to charity.

If this is to go ahead it would be nice to have some indication as to who could do what and where their strengths lie.

This could really be a Maestronet Masterpiece, and something that would come alive for the future.

Any takers?

Mike

[administrator]

[MikeH]

Yes, exactly right! A composite effort which we all put our best into and hope to get the most out of! Are you up for it?

Mike

[Arnold]

MikeH

Hi I have been priceing tonewood to undertake the chore of building a violin that would be good quality. I can not afford to buy any thing good so I figured that building my own would be the best I could do. I would be very interested in reading the post as I would be appling what I read to my own project.

As to donating the procceds to a carity. Excelet!! idea. I have a 3 1/2 yr old boy that is severly disabled and I can tell you first hand that terapy, wheelchairs, ramps, meds, copays, ect.. all cost money.

I will donate a new set of ZYEX with an OBLIGATO"E" To the finished violin.

I can also provide a reusable shipping crate to send it back and forth across the county.

I will follow this closly

[This message has been edited by Arnold (edited 09-04-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Arnold (edited 09-05-2000).]

[mippi]

i don't have any skills in making and i'm also far separate from you ppl.

but i really like the idea or helping the disabled

[CJ]

I have a nice rosewood chinrest that I have left over after my quest for the perfect chinrest. If this project gets off the ground, I'll be glad to donate it.

[fiddlefaddle]

It sounds interesting enough, the logistics are staggering, I wonder how a dozen or so "luthiers", of varied experience knowledge and skills could actually get along? It strikes me that an adminstrator is needed , maybe a committee ,

If we could pull it off it would be cool though. I'm curious how many would participate.

I'm willing to pitch in. ~-co

[administrator]

[Mairead]

This is not at all meant to throw cold water on a fine and charitable idea, but...isn't this merely the 21st c. equivalent of the Mittenwald factory?

[fiddlefaddle]

not really Mairead

no mass production

no profit incentive

volunteer labor.

no misrepresentation about the makers.

that's about as different as you can get.

[MikeH]

Well thanks to all who have replied!

It does seem as if this could be a starter. As fiddlefaddle mentions the logistics could be a problem, but... nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The first thing we need to do is make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, so we need to decide on a model, and it has by definition to be the same model for all of us. I assume that most of you are familiar with Henry Strobel's series on making? He does include a fairly standardised set of Strad model plans, and, as most of you are in the USA (so far) I don't think we could do much better than to use his model. Anyone have suggestions?

So, if we can agree on the basics, and get some more volunteer luthiers, we could make a start soon.

Regarding administration, I think we could be self-regulating in this; we all know what a fiddle looks like, and we all have a fair idea of our abilities. Any problems that come to light - we are in the right place to get a quick and accurate solution, are we not?. After all there are several full time makers and many more part time and amateurs reading these posts.

So... any more for any more?

Mike

[Christopher Reuning]

Mike, what you describe is a lot of fun. Last summer while I was at the violinmaking workshop in Oberlin, a bunch of us made a collaboration violin which turned out wonderfully well. Each of us worked on a bit of it and passed it along to the next person in line. Twenty one people in all worked on it including Sam Zygmuntovitch, Joe Grubaugh, Greg Alf, Frank Ravatin, Marilyn Wallin, Ben Ruth, Jon Cooper, David Folland, David Wiebe,Kurt Widenhouse, Chris White, Chris Germain,Mark Hollinger, and some others that I can't recall at the moment.

[David Tseng]

Mike, count me in. I'll do the graduation. You have to use good quality spruce. No Oregon maple (I hate it).

[MikeH]

A quick consolidation:

MikeH - I will make the mold and ribs, blocks and linings. I will install one set of linings and leave the others loose on the mold. I will then post the garland to the next maker, together with the back and belly wood, unless anyone has other ideas??

Donuel - What could you do?

fiddlefaddle - same question to you?

David Tseng - Thank you for the graduation offer. I have never used Oregon maple. What I propose using, for speed and ease of construction is; a nice one piece slab cut back of Balkan maple and some nice close grained Swiss spruce which is a pleasure to work. The wood is at least 12 years old, so should be excellent.

Thank you to everyone who has promised fittings and so on.

We now need more volunteers!

Regards to all!

Mike

[fiddlefaddle]

I will carve the back, less the purfling and channel,and pass it on for those steps and graduation.

My suggestion would be no power tools except a band saw(ouline of plates and neck), drum sander(ribs), and disk sander(blocks, neck angle) and drill press( graduation , peg holes, peg box).

also each participant accept the work done by others even if your personal standards differ.

Strobels basic plan and methods are a good choice IMHO.

This just might work but it would be nice to have more folks.

Could someone do a website diary including photos? Is Maestronet watching?

Charity of choice? scholarship to lutherie school?

~-co

[Kelvin Scott]

If it is for charity, I'm game. Any woodwork step would be fine, though I like varnishing above all. I shall, however, watch with great curiosity as you wrangle a bunch of luthiers into a cooperating unit.

I actually think it would be more interesting if the non-luthiers on the list attempted this task with professional luthiers as advisors. After all, we do this all the time, while for all of you it would be extremely educational. Just a thought.

[Alphagrl]

Although I am not a maker (YET!) one of the last comments on this topic caught my attention. A Scholarship to a lutherie school was mentioned and I was wondering if there ever has been such a thing. I plan on attending the North Bennet Street School in Boston, in a year and a half after I get married and it seems to be a fairly expensive program. I have researched scholarships but cant find any for future violin-makers. I have been apprenticing for a year now and I love every minute of it. Any input as to where to find funds for such a fabulous education?

[Arnold]

I am new but I would like to advise something. As a production supervisor and a

company Q.C inspector you might want to concider the following.

If you make it by amatures you will have to ship the pieces of wood to the individual that will be preforming the next task with the tools required by that person to do what they have to do. No problem if the violin and tools go back to the lutier for inspection of the work preformed. And then the other problem with amatures you would have to agree to replace a piece if you make a mistake and destroy something.

If lutiers do it they have the tools and you save on shipping costs because it can go place to place with out back tracking, also no one has to lend their tools across the country and no one hase to spend money on tools that they might never use again.

My opinion only. But this is going to be auctioned off and It should be profesionaly made to fetch the higest price for the charity of choice. It could be done either way but if you use ammatures there should be some form of quality contorl . I would even like to learn how to graduate and tap tune a top plate.

Also every one will need to agree on shiping charges. Example if you volentier to do a task you pay shiping to you or you pay shiping to pass it to the next person. That way it is fair to every one. Lutiers should be able to agree to leave anothers work as is unless there is a problem fitting pieces together.

I know I am new and my opinon might not be viewed with the weight of some one that has been on this post page a while. again only staring sugestions.

[MikeH]

We seem to be making good progress so far!

As I have it we have the following state of play:

I will make the mold, bend the ribs and linings and pass these, with back and belly, on to fiddlefaddle. Simultaneoeusly I will send the neck block onto the volunteer for their task.

fiddlefaddle will carve out the back and will send the back/rib assembly onto another volunteer for purfling and finishing the channel and the edge overhang.

This last volunteer will send the purfled back on to David Tseng for graduating.

David will graduate the back/belly - would you also glue the back onto the ribs?

Kelvin, in the fulness of time will varnish the fiddle.

Broken down into stages it isn't that daunting a prospect.

What we need right now are two or possibly three volunteers; someone to carve the scroll and neck, someone to purfle the back and finish the channel, and someone to carve the belly.

This should keep us going for a while.

Kelvin's suggestion of non-luthiers getting involved is great. You have nothing to lose and a lot to learn. Help is only a post away and I am sure it would be forthcoming.

Would anyone like to step forward?

Mike

[Bill Eggleston]

Mike

I'm a non luthier that would love to be involved.

[This message has been edited by Bill Eggleston (edited 09-06-2000).]

[William Johnston]

The Violin Makers Association of Arizona has a small $500 scholarship, I doubt that would get you very far through violin school. The only catch is that you can only apply for it after you start your second year of school. I don't know if it's on their website www.vmaai.com

I was wondering if after the violin has recieved it's final setup could it be sent back to all of the people who contributed to it for say three days each so we could all see the final product. If it was strung up with a set of decent steel strings we could all test play it without ruining the strings. I've setup ten violins with one set of Pirastro Piranito strings and the only string that broke was the A. Before the violin gets auctioned then it could be strung up with the Zyex.

[MikeH]

The latest update:

Mike - mold, ribs and linings

ff - carve back

WJ - carve belly, purfle belly/back, cut bar

DT - graduation

?? - cut soundholes, fit bar

?? - glueing up body, fit saddle & endpin

?? - cut scroll & neck and fir fingerboard?

?? - cut neck mortice & fit neck (&pegs?)

KS - finishing? & varnishing

?? - soundpost, set-up and adjustment

Thank you to all who have offered help. If there is something on the list that you feel happy doing, then please volunteer your services.

I note that no-one wants to do the scroll and neck as yet! This is not an insurmountable problem as I have several partly finished necks, any of which would do the job. Does anyone want to take on the FINISHING of the scroll and neck, as opposed to starting from a lump of maple?

I would just like to remind us all that we will be working from Henry Strobel's book "Violin Making - step by step".

It is now about time to stop talking and start making, at least for me, so I am off to make a mold.

The buck starts here!

Mike

[administrator]

[William Johnston]

I'll glue in the bass bar and cut the f-holes. Don't worry I'll be using hide glue. I'll just do the complete top to save time and shipping if no one minds. If you break the project into too many pieces it will take two years to complete.

[cellocat]

WHAT A STUNNING IDEA !!

I have no services to offer, but would be delighted to make a contribution toward shipping, or parts or whatever.

just awestruck,

cellocat