Jack Batts

An interview by Jeff Feltman

Originally published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



You can walk into a clockmaker’s shop and see fifty clocks. One reads 12:00, another says 11:55, another 12:05. Only one can be right, and it probably isn’t a bad guess that none of them is right. Searching for the right varnish is like being in that clock shop.”

“A man could make 150 more violins in his life if he wasn’t so worried about concocting some witches brew. He would do well to spend his time learning to make a fine violin.”