New Construction Projects in our Violin Workshop

Every newly created instrument we make is a one of a kind piece, its quality being guaranteed by my highest demands for excellence born of 25 years of experience, my intuition and the decisions I make when it comes to wood, wood strength, form and coloring. I allow the highly qualified members of my staff, all but one personally trained by myself, to actively take part in this creative process. Particularly the sound qualities of such an instrument cannot be copied as I always personally decide all matters dealing with every piece of wood involved.

If you wish to take a moment you can view how a Uilderks cello came to be with this slide show.

Work out the inner arching of the back: The drilled holes provide a rough form and enable a quick and easy cut-out.

As an example we would like to show you the work on two copies of a Gasparo da Saló viola from the sixteenth century. The original is still being played, and this despite having a body length of 44,6cm. We successfully copied this instrument once before. For instance, this is how the viola player of the Artemis Quartet sounds, Prof. Volker Jacobsen, using such an instrument of ours. Volker Jacobsen left the quartet in 2007 and is now a professor at the Hanover Music Academy. Please also see Audio Samples.

Composing the belly with a curved-sole finger plane, in the background a thickness calliper can be seen with which we can mesure the strengths of the wood to within 1/10mm.

The tools get smaller and smaller and that's how one finishes the rougher plane tracks.

The last finishing touches, working to within 1/10mm, is done with our homemade draw blades.

The f-hole is cut out  with a jigsaw and trimmed with woodcarving knives.

The belly from inside with f-holes cut and bassbar fitted.

 

A white viola shortly before connecting the fingerboard.

Belly, copy and original: With a great amount of time and effort, new and old merge into a copy.

Just as before, only now the back, copy and original.