Instrument donations. You can help.

We continue to donate instruments to schools and programs, including both our own violins and those from others through our donation program. Most recently we were able to present six violins to Dr. Rita Salzberg of the Music Opportunity Program in Birmingham, Alabama. Locally we provided a number of instruments to Fulton County students on the recommendation of their teachers, and we are currently preparing a number of instruments for the City of Atlanta Schools.

This barely scratches the surface however. There is no shortage of both both individual children and programs that need help.

We continue to ask for your help. We will continue to donate instruments to schools as we can, but if you have any old instruments which can be donated, please come see us. We will sit down with you to examine the instrument, determine if it's an appropriate candidate for donations and if so and you an appraisal for it's value. We will then do any necessary repairs at our own cost and make the donation for you , making sure that you receive a letter acknowledging the donation and giving you credit to the recipiant.

Please help. If you're on this website you're a musician and know how much music can bring to a child's life. There is more need than anyone can imagine.

Lesson Studios

Our lesson studios have been a big success, with a number of students now taking weekly lessons. Our teachers include Jeanne Johnson for violin, Monica Jenks for violin and Stephanie Tessler for cello. We've also recently added Mandi Crosby (formerly Mandi Watson) who is Suzuki certified. We've continued our program where you can have your child take a group lesson at no charge to see if it's something you might want to continue. Please call and speak with Beth at 770-664-4384 or visit this link to sign up online.

Varnish Retouch.

Too often I hear a customer ask about getting an instrument "refinished".

Of course we don't refinish instruments as a general rule. As a violin maker I feel it is important to respect the work of other makers, so we restore varnish rather than refinishing it whenever possible. Also, many customers don't realize that refinishing an instrument will result in a loss of value usually in excess of 50%. Proper matching and retouching is not only less expensive than stripping the finish and starting over, and it usually looks better too.

The key to proper retouch is threefold. First is matching the color, a matter of properly layering the yellows, red and blues (the blue actually is how the brown is made) until the color is the same as the surrounding areas. The second part is the most difficult. No varnish is completely transparent, so it must be made slightly opaque with one of a few different gums. Otherwise the varnish will match in one light or from one direction, but not from all. Retouch which only matches in one type of light and when held in one way is of no use. Third, a varnish over the retouched area must match the surrounding varnish or the retouch will simply look like a different type of blemish. Sometimes these varnishes will need to be blended with careful and limited use of French Polish.

We also take great care to only do varnish work under natural light (it's why our workshop windows face north) and with proper temperature and humidity control.

Not all retouch should hide everything as some wear is natural and appropriate. The key is to allow the insturument to grow old gracefully, retouching damage and inappropriate wear to protect the wood. Over-restoring varnish was a problem within the business back in the 70's with many older instruments covered with a thick layer of unattractive French polish. Fortunately that is a fad which has passed.