Profession violin maker

Violin makers create and assemble parts to create violins according to specified instructions or diagrams. They sand wood, measure and attach strings, test quality of strings and inspect the finished instrument.

Personality Type

• Enterprising / Conventional
• Realistic / Artistic

Knowledge

• Musical instruments materials

  The characteristics of composite materials, felts, glues, leathers and skins, metals and precious metals, woods and wood derivatives to create musical instruments.

• Tuning techniques

  Tuning pitches and techniques and musical temperaments for the various instruments.

• Metalworking

  The process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large-scale structures.

• Types of spring

  Types of metal springs such as leaf, coil, torsion, clock, tension and extension spring.

• Types of violins

  String instruments with four strings such as the violin which is the smallest of the family, the viola or the middle voice, and the cello. Each of these instruments can either have its full size or a fractional size.

• Musical instruments

  The different musical instruments, their ranges, timbre, and possible combinations.

Skills

• Produce violin components

  Choose the appropriate tonewood, materials and tools, and build the different parts of an instrument of the violin family such as the lower, upper and C bouts, the fringerboard, the bridge, the scroll, the strings and the pegbox.

• Decorate musical instruments

  Create designs on musical instruments by using methods such as embossing, piercing, painting, woodworking, weaving, and other methods.

• Create smooth wood surface

  Shave, plane and sand wood manually or automatically to produce a smooth surface.

• Create musical instrument parts

  Design and create parts such as keys, reeds, bows, and others for musical instruments.

• Sand wood

  Use sanding machines or hand tools to remove paint or other substances from the surface of the wood, or to smoothen and finish the wood.

• Produce violin bows

  Choose the appropriate materials and tools, build the stick, pad, screw and frog, select and strech the horsehair, and finish the wooden surface.

• Maintain musical instruments

  Check and maintain musical instruments.

• Manipulate wood

  Manipulate the properties, shape and size of wood.

• Repair musical instruments

  Attach new strings, fix frames or replace broken parts of musical instruments.

• Tune stringed musical instruments

  Tune any parts of stringed musical instruments that are off-key, by using various tuning techniques.

• Apply a protective layer

  Apply a layer of protective solutions such as permethrine to protect the product from damage such as corrosion, fire or parasites, using a spray gun or paintbrush.

• Join wood elements

  Bind wooden materials together using a variety of techniques and materials. Determine the optimal technique to join the elements, like stapling, nail, gluing or screwing. Determine the correct work order and make the joint.

• Assemble musical instrument parts

  Assemble parts together such as the body, strings, buttons, keys, and others to create the final musical instrument.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB