Violin making and maintenance

Some violins, called "bench-made" instruments, are made by a single individual, either a master maker or an advanced amateur, working alone.

Various levels of "trade violin" exist, often mass-produced by workers who each focus on a small part of the overall job, with or without the aid of machinery.

Violin maintenance goes on as long as the instrument is to be kept in playing condition, and includes tasks such as replacing strings, positioning the soundpost and bridge, lubricating pegs and fine tuners, resurfacing the fingerboard, attending to the instrument's finish, and restoring, repairing, or replacing parts of the violin or its accessories which have suffered wear or damage.

The template is used to construct a mould, which is a violin-shaped piece of wood, plywood, MDF or similar material approximately 12 mm or 1/2" thick.

The completed "garland" of ribs, blocks, and linings is removed from the mould to allow attachment of the separately carved top and back.

A common wine cork serves admirably, quietly scrubbing off the crust of rosin without damaging the winding of the string.

Even before breaking, worn strings may begin to sound tired and dull and become "false" over time, producing an unreliable pitch.

For the bow, the only real maintenance is regular cleaning of the stick with a cloth (to remove rosin dust), re-hairing, and replacing the leather and silver wire wrapping.

In the course of playing, hairs are often lost from the bow, making it necessary to have it rehaired periodically, which is done by professionals at roughly the cost of a new set of strings.

A bow which has warped and is no longer straight can sometimes be bent back to true or re-cambered, but this must be done with heat by a craftsman and is not always successful or worthwhile.

Sound post adjustment is as much art as science, depending on the ears, experience, structural sense, and sensitive touch of the luthier.

However, there are also schools, and classes within universities, which may focus on different areas of violin making or repair, and others include auxiliary aspects of lutherie, such as playing, technical illustration and photography.