Our shop has a complete string repair shop, staffed with orchestral string repair experts, not guitar techs that double as violin repair techs! For those who know the difference, we needn't say much more. However, if you think all stringed instruments are the same, I'd invite you to read on. . .
The differences in techniques used to repair a guitar and violin, viola, or cello are many. For starters, what makes a violin feel good to play vs. what makes a guitar feel good to play, takes very different adjustments. How the repair tech gets his/her desired result is very different as well. A guitarist with no violin playing experience can't appreciate what a violinist is looking for in a properly setup instrument. The same is true of a violin luthier. Without playing the guitar and knowing what does and doesn't feel good, it's nearly impossible to achieve the result desired by a guitarist. In both instances, some nuances make a tremendous difference between a poorly setup instrument and one that makes playing a complete pleasure. The last thing any musician (at any level) needs is to be fighting a poor playing, improperly set up instrument!
Our 12,000sf facility has three shops on-premises. There's a guitar shop where we work on guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos, etc. The orchestral string shop, which works exclusively on violins, violas, cellos, and basses. Both shops are outfitted with all of the most modern clamps, adhesives, finish products, and tools needed to complete any repairs needed from minor to significant! The third shop is our brass and woodwind shop. To learn more about that shop, click here.
Over the last 18 months (during the Covid19 pandemic), we've repaired instruments for more people (and school systems) than during any period in our more than 40-year existence! School systems have taken advantage of their downtime to get their aging fleets cleaned, disinfected, and maintained. They've relied on our expertise to breathe life into instruments that had long been neglected (for decades in some instances). In almost every case, our shop can fix, restore, and rebuild instruments for far less than buying a new one. And, in some cases, the older instruments are made better than new ones. So, fixing them is simply an intelligent choice!
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