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Stalking the Wild Maple

Stalking the Wild Maple

by John E. Boser

Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004



Several years ago I opened a mail-order business without any particular purpose in mind except to offer some unique products. Because I grew up with a mysterious fascination with the violin, somewhere along the line I found myself making fiddles.

Since it was my intention to make my instruments affordable, I made them of cherry and various species of pine. The cherry is easy to carve, keeping my time per instrument down, and the pine was hand-selected from the local lumber store. With a few modifications in soundboard thickness, my fiddles performed to my satisfaction (almost). Next it was time to work on appearance; I was becoming a bit bored with the looks of straight-grained cherry.

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