Posted on July 15, 2025July 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: David Rivinus Meet the Maker: David Rivinus by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 David Rivinus is a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, having recently moved here from Vermont. His lutherie life has taken him from the Midwest, to California, Vermont, and to his current residence in Newberg, Oregon. It has also taken him from building, restoring, and photographing traditional instruments into the laboratory and out to the cutting edge of viola ergonomics, which is where I met him. The following conversation took place at the 1999 Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibit near Portland, Oregon, where he and his innovative work were a welcome addition. What got you into the shop? Was it the music, the woodworking, or just turns of fate? I’ve been interested in both music and woodworking ever since I was a kid. I played violin and viola in school orchestra, and when I went to college I was a music major. I played in the college’s chamber orchestra and did a little conducting. My woodworking actually started with clocks. I was very interested in the gears and the inner workings of clocks, and I did some restorations. My first experience with varnish, for example, was in restoring clock cases. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on November 30, 2024May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Bow Making Planes It Worked for Me: Bow Making Plane by Ken Altman Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 I attended a bow-making workshop at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio with an exceptional bow maker named Stephan Thomachot. These are French bow-making planes very much like the ones he used. They are a good size and shape for bow work, they have good heft for their size, and they have good thick blades to keep them from chattering. They are easy to make, and the same method could be used to make planes of different sizes and shapes for other purposes. The bodies of the planes are made by soldering easily-shaped pieces of brass bar stock together, rather than by machining them from solid metal, as they are more typically made. I get the brass from Alaskan Copper & Brass here in Portland, Oregon (503-238-6840). They are an industrial supplier, but they have a small selection of remnants where I’m generally able to find what I’m looking for. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 8, 2024May 2, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 How did your lutherie career get started? I started playing cello when I was in 6th grade and immediately got more interested in the instrument than I was in the playing. When I was about twelve years old I got some money for Christmas from my grandmother. The very next day I ran out and bought Heron-Allen’s Violin Making, As It Was and Is, which I had spotted at a local bookstore. I talked to my mother a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she took one look at the book and thought, “This is a waste of money! He’s never going to do anything with it. It’s much too complex.” But she was wrong. I really surprised her. It took awhile to get around to it, though. Five or six years later I bought a piece of wood and some tools. I started a violin, but I didn’t get very far. I just put the whole thing aside. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 7, 2024June 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips Violin Q&A, Part One Violin Q&A, Part One by George Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #9, #10, #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 In the last year I have received many letters concerning the repair articles I have written for American Lutherie. For the most part, the writers have thanked me for my willingness to share with the membership. Along with the comments on past articles, there are always a few questions asking my opinion about what to use or where to buy, and so on. I’d like to share some of those questions, along with my replies. No matter what I use to polish a violin, it never seems to clean it completely. Do you have any suggestions? I have never found a product that cleans as well as polishes, although many manufacturers claim that their product will do both. Taking into consideration the instrument’s age, type of varnish, and how dirty it is, there are a number of cleaning products that you can use. Example: a French violin, ca. 1875, covered with a thin spirit varnish, with enough caked-on rosin so that ridges have formed on either side of the fingerboard. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 1, 2024May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Passing of Carleen Hutchins Letter: Passing of Carleen Hutchins by Aaron Green Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Hi Tim, I received an e-mail from Al Carruth with the sad news that Carleen Hutchins has passed on. It happened that Al was down in my neck of the woods the other day giving us an increasingly rare opportunity to catch up in real time. As it was, we talked a lot about Carleen. I can count on one hand the number of times I spent any appreciable time in her company and all of them were inspiring. As significant as those times were for me, the first time I met Carleen stands out the most in my memory. In June of 1992 I came along with Al on a road trip to Vermillion, South Dakota, for the GAL Convention. The four days it took us to get out there were an incredible adventure for me. I had just graduated high school (I turned eighteen halfway through the trip) and I was not entirely sure what I was going to do next. By the end of the convention I knew (thanks for that!) and have tried hard since to keep on keeping on. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
