Violin Maker's Notebook: A Companion Volume to : Useful Measurements for Violin Makers - Softcover

Strobel, Henry A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0962067334 ISBN 13: 9780962067334

Publisher: Henry a Strobel, 1991

Synopsis

A shop reference manual. Chapters on bow rehairing and repairing. Repairing and retouching cracks in instruments. Workshop safety. Instrument photography. Musical intervals. Photo-illustrated. Orientation, guidelines, and annotated bibliography for the connoisseur. Now contains an illustrated chapter showing the repair of a fine violin smashed in a car crash.

The Strobel books for violin makers are professional, concise, and convenient, reflecting traditional, conservative, and artistic work. Some forty thousand sold, they are used internationally by student, amateur and professional makers in shops and schools, and referred to by manufacturers, sellers, users, and lovers of bowed instruments. High quality 8.5 by 11 in. paperbacks made to lie flat and last on your workbench.

About this title

About the Author:

Henry Strobel is the author-publisher of seven books on violin, viola, and cello making, repair, and adjustment, which are used worldwide. He recently published a video Watch Me Make a Cello, Step by Step. Born in Indiana in 1936, he had a first career as an electronic design engineer, and was one of the founders of Digital Telephone Systems, Inc. in California, which manufactured transmission and switching equipment. He served in the US Air Force service in Scotland as a communications officer. He studied violin as a schoolboy, made his first over thirty years ago, and has had his own violin business for twenty years, fifteen at his current full service violin shop in Oregon, where, with his wife and sons, he also makes violins, violas, and cellos, and writes books.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Preface to the First Edition

Useful Measurements for Violin Makers, however basic a book, has become established as a standard reference and may be found in violin workshops throughout the world.

While I might perhaps have left well enough alone, it seemed worthwhile to publish this companion volume of additional reference information. This is an elementary book, treating several selected topics. The presentation is not comprehensive or greatly detailed. It is expected that good sense and the prerequisite essential violin making skills will be applied to the particular problem. Proven procedures, a selected set of familiar tools, and high quality, standardized materials lead to dependable results.

I have tried to provide sound information, within the bounds of my knowledge and experience. Where I have presented my personal opinion, please consider it as that. Where a particular product is named, this is for representative information only. Where I have presented specific procedures, I only represent that they have been useful in my own work, not that they are the best, certainly not the only, and very possibly inferior to your own ways of working. (If, for example, you happily rehair bows head first, far be it from me to suggest otherwise, although a frog first procedure is described here.) I am sure that there are deficiencies in this book, written in both the bustle and isolation of the workshop; readers who help in correcting these for future editions will be appreciatively acknowledged.

Some presentations will appear superficial to the expert, but will nevertheless be helpful to the developing maker. Lutherie is learned by doing, but only if there is natural aptitude and interest. It amounts to a vocation of art and service.

The bibliography ("Further Reading") at the end of each chapter is a valuable resource for those who would like additional or different information. Listing a reference does not imply its unqualified approval, of course. Most of the material presented or cited is practical; some is included for cultural rounding.

I have learned from associations with competent and generous colleagues, from many years of experience working in the violin shop, and from a comprehensive study of the literature of violin making (to which I trust this will be a worthy addition). My perspective has been broadened by early studies in the liberal arts, by my previous profession as an engineer, and by my lifelong interest in the violin.

This little book, while primarily for those who make and repair bowed instruments, may also be of interest to musicians, collectors, and other lovers of the violin.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry a Strobel
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0962067334
• ISBN 13: 9780962067334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 66