Lutherie is the art of turning strips of maple as well as spruce into gorgeous stringed instruments like the violin, cello, viola, as well as guitars, mandolins, as well as banjos. just about anybody can make an electric guitar on a bandsaw, however the skill as well as precision of building acoustic instruments is something to stand in awe of.

[Helen Michetschläger] builds violins, violas, as well as cellos in her hometown of Manchester, each one a work of art. barely any type of of her tools would seem out of location in the workshop of [Stradivarius]; whatever is made by hand. The scroll on the neck is carved by hand, the inlaid purfling on the edges of the top as well as back are cut with a knife, not a router, as well as even the surface – one of [Helen]’s specialties – is applied with a light touch.

Violins are fine, however for the dulcet tones we enjoy, you’ll requirement the most gorgeous instrument ever created, the mandolin. [Tom Ellis] has been making mandolins for over 40 years. After working in the shop of one more accomplished luthier, he struck out on his own to develop mandolins.

[Tom] does the tuning as well as setup on all his mandolins, however there is a bit much more machinery included in the development of his pieces; quite a bit of the routine stuff (bridges, for example) are milled on a CNC, however each instrument still has a hand-built touch.

There’s much much more to the luthier’s art than can be presented in a pair of 6-minute videos, so if you have something else that showcases some of the larger, much more challenging instruments such as an archtop guitar or a double bass, send them in. We’ll put them up.