Links To Violin Making Information
I'll consider a recommendation to the listings on the page if you email me.
- The Oberlin Violin Maker's Workshop is an annual event held on the campus of Oberlin Collage where professional violin makers from all over the world gather to teach and learn from each other.
- 42nd Annual Violin [and Bow] Craftsmanship Summer Institute, sponsored by the University of New Hampshire will be held from June 22nd through July 24th, 2015, with week long workshops in a variety of topics related to bow and violin making, bow rehairing and repair, and violin maintenance and repair. You can register for one or more sessions. Download a PDF file of the Violin Institute brochure. - View Faculty Biographies
- Camp Bend-A-Bow. Two 2-week Bow Making Courses with Steven Beckley. Limited to 5 Students each. The first session is from June 29th to July 10th, 2015. The second session is from July 27th to August 7th, 2015.
- The Luthier's Library, is an on-line database of violins, violas and cellos with detailed measurements and photographs. This website allows access to information of over 170 instruments (and growing all the time) in private and public collections around the world. The database is for the benefit of research (and makers, of course) and is ever evolving with files on additional instruments being added regularly. There is a very reasonable yearly subscription fee for full access, but you may Login as a guest to preview of the database and access information on one of the instruments.
- The Strad3D Project is producing a DVD to be published in early 2009 featuring In-Depth Acoustic Analysis, Detailed Photos, Measurements and Thickness maps, CT Scans, 3d Modal Animation, Musical excerpts and Video studies for 3 important violins; the Titian Stradivari of 1715, the Plowden Guarneri of 1735 and the Willemotte Stradivari of 1734. A partial list of contributors include: Dr. George Bissinger, Sam Zygmuntowicz, Martin Schleske, Joseph Curtin, Francois Denis, George Stoppani, Dr. Steve Sirr, John Waddle, Christopher Reuning, Tucker Densley, Fan-Chia Tao, John Topham, Jeffrey Loen and Eugene Schenkman. As of November 2008 the website has 2 interesting video excerpts.
- Preferences among old and new violins: Strads vs Modern Violins, a research paper by Claudia Fritz, Joseph Curtin, and others. Is it true that player's judgements about a the "Old Italian sound" may be biased by the violin's extraordinary monetary value and historical importance?
- ViolinBridges purports to be "The largest online photographic archive of violin, viola and cello bridges [...] with their measurements uploaded from some of the finest makers, restorers and dealers of our time, spanning 24 countries [...]a reference section, with useful articles, images, measurements and downloadable template curves, and a Bridge Analysis Page". This is quite an interesting site if you're interested in bridges.
- Memorial to David Rubio. Includes photos and technical papers, including information about mineral grounds, madder lake making and more.
- Luthiers Sans Frontières (Luthiers Without Borders) The mission of Luthiers Sans Frontières is to provide repair services to musicians, orchestras and ensembles in areas where no local services are available. Activities of LSF are mainly oriented towards developing countries.
- Instrument Maintenance with Respect to Strings. An interesting article aimed at musicians specializing in Early Music by Ephraim Segerman of Northern Renaissance Instruments in Manchester, UK. This article describes tying fret knots, among many other things.
- Information about the books contained in The Herbert Goodkind Collection at Oberlin College.
- An article entitled, TERPENE VIOLIN VARNISH, by William M. Fulton as published by the Southern California Association of Violin Makers. This article includes the recipe for making an oil varnish.
- Violin Acoustics as presented by the Musical Acoustics Group, School of Physics, The University of New South Wales.
- Mode Tuning for the Violin Maker by Carleen M. Hutchins and Duane Voskuil, as published in the Catgut Acoustical Society Journal vol. 2, No. 4 (Series II), Nov. 1993, pp 5 - 9
- Practicum project, including information about Chladni patterns for violin plates, by Emmanuel Bossy and Renaud Carpentier
- An article entitled CLASSICAL EDGEWORK, by Roger Hargrave, as published by the Violin Society of America.
- An article entitled THE STATI d'ANIME OF S. FAUSTINO IN CREMONA: Tracing the Amati Family 1641 - 1686, by Philip J. Kass, as published by the Violin Society of America.
- An article entitled BETWEEN BAROQUE AND NOW, by John. V. Speak, outlining the differences between baroque and modern violins, as published by the Southern California Association of Violin Makers.
- An article entitled MAKE YOUR OWN PREFORMED PURFLING, by Albert W. Fischer as published by the Southern California Association of Violin Makers.
- National Music Museum. One of the best musical instrument museums in the world! Includes the The Witten-Rawlins Collection of Stringed Instruments.
- Links to a number of articles concerning Computed Tomography of violins, courtesy of John Waddle Violins
- Henri D. Grissino-Mayer's dendrochronology Website designed to be the ULTIMATE resource for information on tree-ring research. [Unfortunately not much specifically about violins]
- How to Look For & Evaluate The Work of Today's Instrument Makers. By Wendela Moes of Moes & Moes, Violin Makers.
- A brief overview of the violin and its origins
- "The Original Design of the Violin" as presented by Robert Zuger.
- More information about the Stradivari violin that's been in your family for generations. Courtesy of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers
- More information about that Strad in the attic you have. Thanks to Johnson Strings.
- Wikipedia information about Hide Glue, the stuff that holds violins together.
- Hide Glue FAQ prepared by Craig Deller of The Deller Conservation Group, Ltd. via David Van Edwards, Lute Maker
- A 10 minute video on hide glue presented by Wood Treks
- An International Directory of Musical Instrument Collections, courtesy of CIMCIM (Comité International des Museés et Collections d'Instruments de Musique (International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections))
- Double Bass Luthiers Directory. Courtesy of Bob Gollihur's Double Bass Website
- VSA Newsletters, for Violin Society of America members only.
- List of Prize Winners at Violin Society of America's Competitions from 1975 - 2004
- Many of the winners of competitions can be found by referring to the STRINGS Magazine Resource Guide On-Line (courtesy of STRINGS Magazine) or by searching through the Links Directory at THE STRAD Magazine website.)
- Arto's String Calculator , courtesy of Arto Wikla
- String ID Chart, as published by Quinn Violins
- The Way Stringed Instruments Went, Courtesy of Jose Sanchez-Penzo of Ratingen-Homberg, Germany. This is a very interesting Site that includes information about famous instruments, their makers, and who owned them throughout history, and more. Be forewarned... the data interface takes a long time to load... but it's worth the wait!
- ORPHEON - Museum of Historical Musical Instruments
- The Viola Web Site
- Early Music America Homepage A comprehensive list of early music sites.
- The Early Music Guild Homepage in Seattle. Check it out!
- The Guarnieri Family Homepage, including information about The Guarneri Family of violin makers
- Ira B. Kraemer & Co.'s Stringed Instrument Purchaser's Guide
- MaestroNet. A fine resource for finding instruments, prices, sheet music, technical materials, and makers.
- The Guild of American Luthiers Homepage. Mostly guitar stuff, but some very good information relating to bows and bowed string instruments.
- Recommendations for the Conservation of Musical Instruments: an Annotated Bibliography
- The Basics of Music Law, authored by LegalMatch Law Library Managing Editor, Ken LaMance, Attorney at Law
- The Luthiers Mercantile Homepage Wood and tool source. Some violin related materials, but mostly for guitar makers.
- Tool Sources. If you're a maker and are looking for tools non-specific to violin or bow making... this is the Site to look at.
- Violin Scale Charts
- The following links are Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
To the David Van Zandt side of this website