Lutherie Books in General
This is the beginning of my “offerings” to the reading public, regarding Lutherie: the building and repairing of Violin-Family instruments. I currently build and repair Violins, Violas, Cellos, and Double Basses, as well as all the Five String Variants of each.
The instruments have been making customers happy wherever they go, but I have come to realize that I will only be able to build so many instruments before my body will no longer cooperate. So I am attempting to take some of the things I have learned and experienced, in Lutherie, and make them available for others to use and enjoy. (The headings below are links to the Amazon sites where the books are available.)
Longer Lutherie Books
Building an Oliver Five String Fiddle
My first book on lutherie was a compilation of a series of blog posts, chronicling the building of a commissioned five-string fiddle. I offered the compilation for years as a free .pdf download, with its companion, “The Journeys of the Swan,” but it did not work well on smart-phones, or other small screens, as the text was just too small to read. So, I have revised and re-formatted the book as an electronic book, and have released it as a Kindle book.
It is only 21,000 words, (which seems short, to me,) but it is profusely illustrated with color photos of the build, so, in print, it about 135 pages.
I hope to offer an online series of lutherie lessons later, in keeping with this style
The Journeys of the Swan
This one is a different kind of story. Kai Jensen, a NASA engineer who loved violins, began to build a cello. However, his health failed him before he could complete his beloved project. Years later, long after his passing, his daughter brought the instrument to me to complete it for him, so that she would have her father’s cello to play.
This is the story, step-by-step, of how we fulfilled Kai Jensen’s dream and it blossomed into a beautiful cello. It is also the story of how his daughter inherited her father’s joy. She named the completed instrument “The Swan,” because the first music she heard it play was Saint-Saen’s “The Swan.”
These are the Journeys of the Swan.
Small Lutherie Books
This will probably become a list of Lutherie articles or short lutherie books on resurrecting old fiddles. Only two for now, but more will come. These will appear on Kindle for their minimum price
The Bread Bag Fiddle
This is a short work (3,800 words, 30 photos) chronicling the transformation of a “junk-store special”…a sadly neglected and abused violin, (literally delivered to me in pieces, in a bread-bag) into the daily player of a gigging fiddler. It is a testimony to how careful lutherie can resurrect a “Dead” fiddle.
“Resurrection of Another Dead Fiddle”
This is a little shorter, still, but it includes details of Lutherie tasks: Internal structural repairs, as well as replacement of missing rib wood and a full neck-set. Illustrated profusely.
The customer had sadly set this one aside and bought a cheaper violin on which to practice, but after the repairs shown here, she reclaimed this violin to be her daily player. She has become a Happy Customer!
Thanks For Looking!