The term Luthier means a maker of stringed instruments. A Luthiery is his violin shop. If a Luthier makes stringed instruments, he also repairs violins and will have access to the books to appraise the value of stringed instruments. Luthiers make and repair violins, cellos, guitars and base fiddles. From what I have read and from my own experience there seems to be 3 ways to sort Luthiers. These are by type of instrument, skill and experience of the luthier and by the business integrity of the violin luthier.

Wooden stringed instruments divide into 2 broad categories, those that are plucked and those that are bowed. Most luthiers will have a special passion for one category or the other. So you would expect that a violin maker would not be a guitar maker and vice versa. However, a luthier needs to make an income and sometimes his passion does not get him through the slow times so he will apply his skills to whatever stringed instrument that you bring through the door of his shop. His shop is called a luthiery.

Most violins are factory made and have been for over 100 years. Making violins by hand is still practiced by modern luthiers. Of course this is a more expensive way to produce an instrument. The price usually depends on the reputation of the Luthier and the quality that results from his endeavors. This is rather exceptional and to supplement the income from their own creations Luthiers add to their income by engaging in violin repair. They will recondition or restoring old violins. Along with this goes the skill to appraise the value of violins for sale and for insurance purposes.

How good the Luthier is depends on his training and experience. We were lucky to enlist the services of one who was trained in Europe from the age of 14 and had over 50 years of experience. His reputation was more like legend. He excelled in his skills at making instruments, fixing them and at being a business person with integrity. To me this is what you expect when doing any business. The person you hire should know their business and do it honestly at a fair price that is in line with his level of skill.

I have told the many people who have asked about violin appraisals that you need to find such a luthier and have him appraise your instrument. As the header on this website states, violins are all about the sound. You cannot have your violin credibly appraised with out a trained luthier hearing it. This leads to the question of how do you find such a person? Searching the web for a Luthier in your locale is one way. However, that does not address the integrity issue. What we did was ask around at the local music shops. We were lucky and found our man that easily. Other places to ask would be with your local teachers, music schools, bands and orchestras. The grapevine for violins is present and the local violin community knows who is who for honesty and quality.

Then it is up to you. Expect a good Luthier to be a bit prickly in his personality. People who do not know instruments have a lot of expectations that are much higher than what is reality. People who do know music are demanding and frugal. A good luthier always has a bit of a crust from dealing with such situations. If you find this in your luthier, it is a good thing. They do not want you to waste their time and they respect you enough not to waste your time.

Since our site is written from the perspective of someone who is new to violins through discovery or inheritance we have received a lot of mail about who might be a good luthier to help with the valuation, repair or management of such a gift. I have also met a lot of luthiers in social situations. So we are now putting together our list of violin luthiers that our endeavors have brought us into contact with. This is our new direction in fall of 2011 so it will take a while to go through the mailing list but we will try to build a substantial list of luthiers that may end up spanning the globe. We have over 60,000 unique visitors per year from over 100 countries. Most are within 4 major demographics...the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Recommended Links and Luthiers

If you are a luthier or know of a violin luthier of integrity and think we should add them to our list please contact us through the contact form. We can either list them or approach them to be linked from this site.