Violin Making

Einstein playing his violin.

We want to call it a lost art, though it is alive and well. It feels lost because you hardly ever see a violin being made. As uncommon as the shoeshiner, bumping into a violin maker seems is an unlikely occurrence for most folks. And since Sephari loves to surprise its devoted blog followers with the interesting tidbits of the handmade artisan world, we’re bringing to light this special practice.

What makes violin craftsmanship so interesting is the alive, organic way it births a violin. It is as raw and intangible as bottling wine. Every inch of wood is different, each breathes different and will sound different combined with any other particular piece of wood. Wood, the product of these magnificent gigantic life forms that we love as trees, is an organism, that we are shaping into a music bearing tool for our humanly desires. Einstein discovered string theory through a single violin note–explaining the world through the perfect beautiful loops of sound these instruments played.

The anatomy of a violin.

The basic anatomy of a violin consists of a body (or corpus), a neck, a bridge, a soundpost, four strings, and various fittings. The fittings are the tuning pegs, tailpiece and tailgut, endpin, possibly one or more fine tuners on the tailpiece, and perhaps a chinrest, either attached directly over the tailpiece or to the left of it. The anatomy is similar to a guitar, except violin making involves more delicacy. It also involves constructing a bow, which guitars of course do not have. The bow consists of a stick with a ribbon of horsehair strung between the tip and frog (or nut, or heel) at opposite ends. Yes, you heard us–horsehair. Violinmaking involves ingredients zanier than a Harry Potter spell, like animal glue, catgut, and peg dope.

There is a plethora of violin makers in America, which of course comes as a surprise, like when you find out that crossword competitions hold national conferences. There are followers for every niche! A trusty violin maker will most likely hail from the A.F.V.B.M, aka American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. And the Violin Society holds a conference (every?) year that lets people of all abilities attempt to make their own violins. And of course there are violin/bow making competitions, complete with judges and international speakers.

And while we have you on this violin kick, enjoy a couple videos on the interesting world of violin making.