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Waxing Luthier
This page is to inform anyone who can't get enough of my superfluity, about my motivations and approaches to instrument making specifically, and all of my work in general.
I wanted to learn to play the fiddle/violin just before I decided to make them, because my wife has two distant cousins that can really play old time fiddle music. As a woodworker, I then naturally thought I should make my own fiddle. So after about five years from that seed bring planted, in 2002, I built a cherry/red wood/red oak fiddle, took it to cousin, Debbie, who then tore it up and played the best fiddle music ever. From that time on, I was going to make violins and continue the legacy of the Appalachian mountaineer. This is a legacy of independence and fashioning for yourself the finer things of life you desire, but may not be able to afford.
As time went by I was building and selling some instruments, and I was also learning to play fiddle tunes. Now, while I had musician neighbors, because of life and schedules and so on, I was learning tunes and how to play from a "Teach Yourself Fiddling" book, which reminds me that now would be a good time to tell you that I have learned a great many things from books. In fact, that has been the most wonderful thing from the Renaissance, the fact that books could be published and copied and sent anywhere and one could learn how to do things. Now, it would have been nice to have a teacher on hand to help along the way, both for playing and building, and there were people whose brains I could pick now and then, but at the time I lived in the more remote area of Konnarock, Virginia, and getting together with peers and mentors wasn't always possible. Still, over the passing years I was able to develop some skill and I am now at a place where I have confidence in what I build, and can offer it for sale without reservation. As for playing, I can be somewhat entertaining, and that was always my goal.
I continue to develop skills and processes for constructing my instruments. For example, with my guitars I am pursuing a revolutionary scientific construction method I call "Static Displacement Spatial Expansion" (SDSE) which allows for the configuration of a larger sound chamber cubic capacity, without increasing the dimensional size. This is real technical quantum-fifth-dimensional-string-theory-Coast to Coast stuff here, and I can't expect everyone to understand, but it makes for a great guitar!
Now in dealing with fiddlers and violinists, I've gained an understanding that most of these musicians can be very self-conscious. Often a fiddler, especially early on, can be on the receiving end of some of the most cruel ridicule, probably more than any other instrumentalist, and many must have suffered some traumatic experience of being embarrassed in public, and therefore tend to shy away from any additional attention being brought upon themselves, especially with an instrument that calls attention to itself on it's own without even being played. Oh, the paradox, yearning to be heard but not noticed, and for that reason, many will not want a Criddle or violin that is not of an acceptable color or of traditional elements.
But some will. So I go ahead and make an instrument that is different on occasion, and usually there is someone out there who will appreciate the uniqueness of something I've made, or may simply not know or not care that they are not supposed to get "that one".
Please don't misunderstand. I love making a traditional violin. They are beautiful to be sure. I just like to shake things up a bit to keep the work interesting and fun. So while I use maple most of the time, I will use cherry when a board with exceptional figure is found. Or I will try something because of its qualities as wood, such as the hardness of dogwood, or maybe the color of hedge apple.
The cost of my violins and guitars start at $2,000.00, with F-5 mandolins starting at $2,800.00. Prices do not include cases, bows, or shipping, but I can provide accessories and services at an additional charge. Also, any "above and beyond" customization (i.e. all abalone bindings/guards/acanthus vine inlays, Scandinavian rosewood fingerboards, platinum tailpieces, north-face Saharan Dune Spruce, etc.), is extra. Criddles are available at no extra charge.
If you read all of this, I might give you ten percent off, but there will be a test first.
This page is to inform anyone who can't get enough of my superfluity, about my motivations and approaches to instrument making specifically, and all of my work in general.
I wanted to learn to play the fiddle/violin just before I decided to make them, because my wife has two distant cousins that can really play old time fiddle music. As a woodworker, I then naturally thought I should make my own fiddle. So after about five years from that seed bring planted, in 2002, I built a cherry/red wood/red oak fiddle, took it to cousin, Debbie, who then tore it up and played the best fiddle music ever. From that time on, I was going to make violins and continue the legacy of the Appalachian mountaineer. This is a legacy of independence and fashioning for yourself the finer things of life you desire, but may not be able to afford.
As time went by I was building and selling some instruments, and I was also learning to play fiddle tunes. Now, while I had musician neighbors, because of life and schedules and so on, I was learning tunes and how to play from a "Teach Yourself Fiddling" book, which reminds me that now would be a good time to tell you that I have learned a great many things from books. In fact, that has been the most wonderful thing from the Renaissance, the fact that books could be published and copied and sent anywhere and one could learn how to do things. Now, it would have been nice to have a teacher on hand to help along the way, both for playing and building, and there were people whose brains I could pick now and then, but at the time I lived in the more remote area of Konnarock, Virginia, and getting together with peers and mentors wasn't always possible. Still, over the passing years I was able to develop some skill and I am now at a place where I have confidence in what I build, and can offer it for sale without reservation. As for playing, I can be somewhat entertaining, and that was always my goal.
I continue to develop skills and processes for constructing my instruments. For example, with my guitars I am pursuing a revolutionary scientific construction method I call "Static Displacement Spatial Expansion" (SDSE) which allows for the configuration of a larger sound chamber cubic capacity, without increasing the dimensional size. This is real technical quantum-fifth-dimensional-string-theory-Coast to Coast stuff here, and I can't expect everyone to understand, but it makes for a great guitar!
Now in dealing with fiddlers and violinists, I've gained an understanding that most of these musicians can be very self-conscious. Often a fiddler, especially early on, can be on the receiving end of some of the most cruel ridicule, probably more than any other instrumentalist, and many must have suffered some traumatic experience of being embarrassed in public, and therefore tend to shy away from any additional attention being brought upon themselves, especially with an instrument that calls attention to itself on it's own without even being played. Oh, the paradox, yearning to be heard but not noticed, and for that reason, many will not want a Criddle or violin that is not of an acceptable color or of traditional elements.
But some will. So I go ahead and make an instrument that is different on occasion, and usually there is someone out there who will appreciate the uniqueness of something I've made, or may simply not know or not care that they are not supposed to get "that one".
Please don't misunderstand. I love making a traditional violin. They are beautiful to be sure. I just like to shake things up a bit to keep the work interesting and fun. So while I use maple most of the time, I will use cherry when a board with exceptional figure is found. Or I will try something because of its qualities as wood, such as the hardness of dogwood, or maybe the color of hedge apple.
The cost of my violins and guitars start at $2,000.00, with F-5 mandolins starting at $2,800.00. Prices do not include cases, bows, or shipping, but I can provide accessories and services at an additional charge. Also, any "above and beyond" customization (i.e. all abalone bindings/guards/acanthus vine inlays, Scandinavian rosewood fingerboards, platinum tailpieces, north-face Saharan Dune Spruce, etc.), is extra. Criddles are available at no extra charge.
If you read all of this, I might give you ten percent off, but there will be a test first.
Content copyright 2014. John Dancer Violins. All rights reserved.