The Violin Shop

The phone was ringing. If it had rung a minute earlier I would have let the answering machine pick it up like the last call… I’d been making sure the crack in the cello top lined up right from end

A breeze moved the heavy air and gave it a little relief. Thick clouds threatened rain, but the roads were still dry. I pulled into my parking stall, unlocked the front door of my shop, and turned off the security.

In the first issue of Inside the Shop I outlined the three basic principles I use to evaluate sound. In this issue I’d like to go into a bit more depth, but before I do lets briefly review the fundamentals.

There is only one power that determines the course of history, just as it determines the course of every individual life: the power of man’s rational faculty- the power of ideas. If you know a man’s convictions, you can predict

John F. Kennedy once said: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” I imagine he meant those who wallow in the past and those

About 25 years ago I stood in the middle of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Dwarfed under its 365 ft. high dome set on a colonnaded drum, I looked up. The enormity altered my spatial awareness, taking my breath away

Last year I heard the San Diego Symphony perform a terrific program, compliments of one of my customers. The heart of the program was the 21st piano concerto by Mozart and the 1st symphony by Mahler. I was so exited

Standing on a mountainside near Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon, I looked up from the base of an Englman Spruce tree and almost fell over backward: 130 feet of standing spruce that took 3 of us fingertip to fingertip to

Avoid bridge and soundpost collapse by changing strings one at a time. Increase string and bridge life by putting pencil lead in the string grooves once the old one is off. When possible, wind the string on the peg once