Frequently asked questions:

Q1: How do you know what a violin is going to sound like when you have finished it?

Q2: How long do I have to wait when I order a violin from you before it is completed? How long is the waiting list?

Q3: Can I assume that someone who calls himself a violin maker must deliver minimal professional quality? He/she too calls him-/herself a violin maker!

Q4: Is so and so a good violin maker?

Q5: Should a new instrument be plaid on for a year before it will sound good?

How do you know what a violin is going to sound like when you have finished it?

A1: The completed violin is the result of an enormous amount of different actions, considerations and choices. From the choice of material, to form, through to the choice of strings. As a violin maker I have influence on all these aspects consciously or unconsciously. The result is not a collection of parts at random but the result of constantly adapting everything while building the instrument. It is the result of training, years of experience, insight, talent, intelligence, artistic flair, understanding and speed of learning. The final result will arise from what was before and in that sense you can as a violin maker and as a musician recognise a development, a line, depending on who built the instrument. This line coincides of course with the qualities of the maker and is not by definition good or bad. It is a mirror image of all that formed the violin maker.

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How long do I have to wait when I order a violin from you before it is completed? How long is the waiting list?

A2: As a customer and musician you first want to play and listen to the instrument in order to experience whether you and the instrument fit together before you finally decide to buy the instrument. You want to make this choice with conviction. You can do that here. In my opinion reciprocal freedom works best when it comes to buying something as special and personal as a violin, viola or cello. Freedom for you as a musician and me as a violin maker.
When you indicate you are interested in an instrument made by me I will make a note of your name and address and I will inform you when an instrument of your choice is available. Just like with an older instrument you can then play it. When you are convinced, you may buy the instrument.

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Can I assume that someone who calls himself a violin maker must deliver minimal professional quality? He/she too calls him-/herself a violin maker!

A3: Someone calling himself a violin maker does not mean anything. Everyone can do that including you. Running a shop or workshop is free to everyone. Unfortunately world-wide there are unscrupulous people who pass themselves off as violin maker without any professional knowledge. They often utter all sorts of slogans to give the customer the impression they are at the right address. The sad reality of today is that people come to my workshop just having had their instruments or bows "repaired" or respectively "rehaired" but in fact irreparable damage has been done up to destruction. Sometimes a name is proudly written over the repair, the same repair that made the instrument totally valueless, irreparable and caused the trusting customer enormous financial damage. Should the customer have known this? Yes and no. No, because he judged from the exterior characteristics such as nice person, beautiful shop, impressive advertisement, nice web-site etc. Yes, because by getting information from more reliable sources a warning light would have gone off. In this profession it is very important what someone really can do and not what someone says he can do or pretends to be able to do through external appearances.

Choose your violin maker with the same care as you would choose your family doctor!
You will notice that there are fortunately a number of good professional people.

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Is so and so a good violin maker?

A4: Whether someone is a good violin maker, is difficult to say. It depends here again on a number of factors, on a complete picture.
A violin maker can work on many levels, concentrating on different aspects.
A violin maker can make as pure trade, a handicraft. If you stick to the basic rules of violin making, the result can be perfectly all right. It works.
You can also carry out the profession as an artistic trade if you have artistic qualities in you. The instrument then gets aspects of beauty and charm.
You can also make a violin that in terms of the basics is badly built but sounds relatively good.

It is also possible to make a violin that it is better than good, where the violin maker through understanding the coherence of form and sound has given the violin additional value, a new dimension. The maker can raise form to beauty. He can change the violin from an instrument in one's hand to a medium to express music and transmit emotions. An instrument that lays no boundaries on the player but follows him/her in his/her musical power of expression.

It is possible that you can make a good violin on every level. This does not of course mean that the different instruments are similar.

What then is bad in this respect?
In my opinion when the construction of a violin is not good. When you for example made your plates too thin in proportion to the arching and type of wood. An instrument can sound very impressive in the beginning but after a year the arching gives way under pressure from the strings and the instrument becomes lifeless and usually worthless.
Or when the construction as regards sizes and proportions is not correct. Bowing problems that you can get from a much too broad model.
Then the violin is no good just like a bridge is no good if it starts to sway with a bit of wind.

In short, assuming the violin is well built there are always different levels that a violin can be made on.
It is up to the musician as to which violin maker and instrument he prefers.

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Should a new instrument be plaid on for a year before it will sound good?

A: Not in my opinion. Also my experience shows that it is not necessary. It does take time for the player and instrument to get used to each other. One person will need more time than another. With a three hundred- year old top instrument it will also take a while to get used to each other. Colour of sound, character, contact, projection etc, everything is in it from the beginning and can be heard. This is separate from the getting used to each other period.
You do have to consider slight variations because for example the sound-post gets loosened after a period of time because the belly and the back are compressed a bit through pressure from the sound-post which happened with old instruments a long time ago.
A tiny bit longer new sound-post rectifies that. This is a very normal phenomenon.
You must watch out for the following:
It is possible to build an instrument that sounds very impressive in the beginning but where the basis is not a well-built instrument but rather a badly built instrument. If you make the plates too thin to resist the pressure from the strings then these will often give way after a year. You will then see a collapsing of the arching and deformations in the arching. Before this process of deformation is really visible, the instrument can give a false impression of strength. Only a really well-built instrument can resist the pressure from the strings and at the same time sound free and strong. Especially the arching, structure of the wood and plate thickness play a crucial role.

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