Violin Shops

Metzler Violin Shop  www.metzlerviolins.com   A great violin shop in Glendale, about 20 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.  Tom worked for Mr. Weisshaar in the 70's.

Johnson Strings  www.johnsonstring.com  A violin shop in Boston that has a great collection of violins and bows from modern American makers.

Solo Classic Inc.  www.soloclassic.com   Roumen Raykovski is one of seven who entered the Chicago School of Violin Making in 2001 with me.  He is now the head of repairs at William Harris Lee Violin Makers in Downtown Chicago and owner of Solo Classic in suburban Chicago.

Studio Restauro  www.studiorestauro.com  Jens Johansson  was a coworker at Hans Weisshaar Violin shop for a year and a half.  He is now one of the best restorers in Cremona, the birth place of the violin.

Violin and Bow Makers

Margaret Shipman  www.weisshaarrepairbook.com  Margaret is a violin maker who worked for Hans Weisshaar and co-auther Violin Restoration with him.  It's a bench mark publication in the violin trade.  Margaret is also my mentor for 8 years.  She retired from working at the shop in 2008. 

Tschu Ho Lee,  Rebecca Elliot and Fred Thomson  www.csvm.org  See Chicago School of Violin Making under Resources below. 

Kelvin Scott  www.ksviolins.com  Kelvin entered the the Chicago School of Violin Making the same semester I did.  He is a muti-award winner.

Rodney Mohr  www.rodneymohr.com  Rodney is also a Chicago School alumnus.  I studied bow making at the Oberlin Summer workshop with him.  He is one of the best American bow makers.

Resources

Maestronet  www.maestronet.com  A great resource and community for musicians and luthiers alike.  I like their online forum.

Violinist.com  www.violinist.com  Another online comunity for string musicians.

Chicago School of Violin Making  www.csvm.org  An under-rated world class violin making school.  Master Tschu Ho Lee is one of the important Chicago and American violin makers.  Violin makers and teachers Fred Thompson and Rebecca Elliot are good makers in their own right.

David Van Zandt  www.vanzandtviolins.com  He is a violin maker that also has one of the most comprehensive resources page and a collection of links to violin and bow makers.

An early western lathe.

A very early Chinese jade worker's lathe.