Completed March 2021
I asked my original violin tone wood supplier for name ideas. This was what he came up with. No explanation. The name means nothing to me, but I felt the need to suck up to him since I was buying mail-order and he was selecting tone wood for me sight unseen. Recently, however, I lucked into a different source for beautiful aged maple backs: a man for whom it was a bit of an obsession to buy 30- to 60-year-old tone wood at auction from the estates of late violin makers. When the man’s wife got pregnant with twins and they needed money, he put his collection up for sale, and I bought all he had. I now have enough wood for another 150 violins and don’t have to suck up to tone wood suppliers for at least 10 to 15 years!
Violins are traditionally made with spruce tops; flamed maple backs, sides and necks; and ebony fingerboards and accessories. Spruce and maple are still abundant and sustainably harvested, but ebony and other tropical hardwoods are quickly becoming endangered. All 26 of my apprentice violins were made with ebony fingerboards, but my 27th will be made with a synthetic ebony developed and produced in Switzerland. It is acoustically equivalent to ebony, with the same look, feel, and weight. Its drawback: it’s about three times the price.
