Completed December 2021 The spruce top of this violin has a wider-than-usual grain pattern. Traditionally, a narrow, tight grain pattern is thought to be more desirable for tone quality. But, as is often the case, there are lots of exceptions, including many wide-grained Strads and Guarneris worth millions. 

Completed November 2021 River is the first violin on which I employed a different varnish method. I finished most of my earlier 17 violins from a quart can of generic “amber violin oil varnish” purchased from my violin supply source. Starting with River, I now use a “ground” layer of clear or amber shellac, then…

Completed October 2021 This violin is not named for the way it sounds.

Completed October 2021 It’s what you’ve gotta do! Learning both to build and to play the violin over the past two years has reinforced for me this very fundamental concept: you don’t get better unless you practice.  The deep red color of this violin is how most Stradivari instruments looked when they were newly varnished,…

Completed August 2021 Named for my wife’s father’s father, who was a vocalist and violinist, among other musical talents. Stacey remembers how Otto embarrassed his grandchildren in church by belting out the hymns at twice the necessary volume. 

Completed August 2021 There is a very small erotic image laminated inside this violin, in a spot impossible to see without a flexible fiber-optic scope. The question I am trying to answer is: if this were the violin of a 14-year-old boy, would he spend more time practicing?  (For the record, the image is from…

Completed June 2021 Since it takes about a month to build a violin (about 200 hours), I have plenty of time to think of names while I work. So one might think I’d come up with something more dignified. But soon before I started building this one, I started formal violin playing lessons. The first…

Completed May 2021 My grandson, born just before I started this violin. Like both his father and mother, Luka is blond and blue-eyed, and I wanted to make a blond violin with just a hint of blue under the rim of the overhang. It didn’t turn out as I’d envisioned, though, as the top layers…

Completed March 2021 Named for the candy bar. There is a story told on the radio show and podcast “The Moth” by an Indian man who is introduced to the treat for the first time: “This is KitKat. They eat it in America. It’s AMAZING!” I tried to color the varnish to look like milk…

Completed April 2021 I lived in Indonesia for almost a year when I was 18, staying with a very large family headed by a prominent and well respected political journalist. “Bapak” was getting on in years and was rather skinny, bald, and jug-eared. He was extremely smart with a very broad sense of humor, and…