Violins and violas

Hear it first.

Violins and violas made one at a time, then set up to the hand that will play them.

Commission an instrument
02

Look at the grain.

Alpine spruce for the belly, maple for the back. Both are split rather than sawn, so the cut follows the tree instead of the blade.

10 yearsIn the rack before it is touched

03

Nothing here is glued shut.

It is built to be opened again, and everything holding it shut gives way to warm water.

  • Hide glue, so the belly comes off
  • No screws, no dowels, no epoxy
04

Then it is set up to you.

The bridge is cut to your fingerboard and the soundpost moved a fraction at a time until the instrument speaks evenly on all four strings.

Setup, and the first year of adjustment, are in the price

The instrument

Point at a part.

Six of the seventy odd pieces inside a violin, and what each one is there to do.

  1. 01The woodSpruce and maple, bought as billets
  2. 02The ribsBent over a hot iron onto a mould
  3. 03The bellySplit, not sawn, so the cut follows the grain
  4. 04The fingerboardEbony, planed to a shallow hollow
  5. 05The scrollCarved from the solid, and silent
  6. 06The soundpostSix millimetres of spruce. You never see it
On the bench

Seven months, in order.

Most of a violin is waiting. The parts that decide how it sounds take a fortnight, and the varnish alone takes six weeks.

  1. Month one

    The back is chosen

    You pick a piece of maple off the rack and it is cut in two and opened like a book, so the figure runs out from the centre joint in both directions.

  2. Month two

    Ribs on the mould

    Rib stock is thinned to a millimetre, bent over a hot iron and glued to corner blocks on a wooden mould that comes out again at the end.

  3. Months three and four

    The plates are arched

    Belly and back worked down with a gouge and a thumb plane, then graduated until the thickness is right everywhere. This is where the sound is decided and it cannot be undone.

  4. Month five

    The box is closed

    Bass bar sprung into the belly, linings cleaned up, neck set at the angle that fixes the string height. Then the belly goes on with hide glue and the inside is out of reach.

  5. Months five to six

    Varnish, and daylight

    Ground, colour, then clear coats, hung in the window to dry between each one. Nothing about this part can be hurried and it is most of what you are waiting for.

  6. Month seven

    Set up, and yours

    Bridge cut, soundpost fitted and moved a fraction at a time, strings on, and a fortnight of playing it in before you are asked to come and take it away.

What it costs and how long

The numbers on one instrument.

£9,600A violin, made to commissionA third on order, the rest on collection
£11,400A viola, 16 or 16 and a half inchLarger bodies are quoted on the drawing
2.8 mmThe belly at its thinnestChecked with calipers and against the light
250Hours at the bench, one instrumentNot counting the weeks it spends drying
7 monthsFrom order to collectionLonger if the back has still to be found
A new instrument has no history, so everything you hear in it is the wood and the work. Give it thirty years and somebody will tell you it was always good.
Alec Wrenfield, who makes them
Commissioning

Before you order anything.

The honest answer is that you should play what is already here before you pay for something that does not exist yet.

01

Play the ones on the wall

There are usually two or three finished instruments in the workshop. Play them first. If one of them is right, take it and there is nothing to commission and nothing to wait for.

02

Choose the back yourself

Maple is stacked and numbered in the rack by the window. You pick the piece, and you see it again as a finished plate before the box is closed over it.

03

It is cut to how you play

String height, bridge curve and soundpost are set to your hand rather than to a chart. That is a morning in the workshop with you in the room and the instrument under your chin.

04

A year of adjustment

A new instrument moves as it settles and the first winter changes it. Bring it back as often as it needs through the first year and there is nothing to pay.

Enquire

Come and play one.

Tell us what you play now and what you want it to do differently. We reply with a date to come to the workshop.