cheaper than our bodies

Hello everyone, and welcome to my little corner of cyberspace. My name is Derek Michel and I am a violin maker and restorer who recently moved back to Long Island to bring his skills to eastern Suffolk County. My sense of purpose here is twofold: to give occasional glances into the life of a working violin maker, and be an asset to a community that has given me much in return. I believe every strings player, whether new or accomplished, young or old, has a right to play on an instrument that is set-up well, has decent strings, and won’t cause pain, discomfort, or a sense of dread whenever they pick it up. Sadly, a lot of shops, particularly online retailers, looking to make a quick buck, sell instruments that do just that. Part of my job, as I see it, is to correct this.

Violin family instruments create some of the most joyous, beautiful music in the world. They’re also notoriously difficult to learn how to play even moderately well, requiring a lifetime of dedicated practice and study. And just as violins are difficult to master musically, there is also a high curve in learning how to make and repair them well, requiring a certain “knack” in the luthier. I’ve found the craft becomes much easier to conceptualize when an instrument is broken down into its core components. One of my first violin making instructors, the late Peter Prier, often likened violins to tiny human beings; they’ve got a head (scroll), neck, shoulders, waist, and hips. And just like on humans, parts on violins tend to fall apart as they age, even on well-constructed bodies, requiring increasingly frequent medical visits. Art imitating life, if you will. And while violins experiencing heavy use can be expensive to maintain, they’re by and large cheaper than our own bodies. Whether or not they’re worth this investment is up to the player to decide.