The purple heart is the violin that started this Journey and passion for me back in 1994 with a request from my teenage son for me to make him a blonde violin with fittings made with the purple heart wood that I was using for other projects in my shop. I told him that I knew nothing about making a violin, but he wasn't going to take no for an answer and said let's go to the library and get a book. Fairly certain that we wouldn't find a book on making violins at our library, I said okay let's go look. When we got there, to my surprise we found a book called "The Violin Builder's Primer" written by a maker in Springfield, Missouri named Houston Taylor. This little book was very well written and had a lot of excellent hand drawn illustrations. After skimming through it real quick, I'm thinking maybe I can do this. So we checked it out and so started the most satisfying thing I have ever done. The book had a great bibliography in the back and a list of places to buy wood and the supplies that we needed, so we placed an order for some European Spruce and Maple from the International Violin Company and we were off to the races.

This violin consumed me for months until it was finished. I couldn't wait to get home from work so that I could work on it. The only accessories that I didn't make for this violin were the bridge and the strings.

While working on this one, I was already planning more, so I knew I had found something that would be a lifelong passion for me. When I look at this violin today, I immediately see all my mistakes and things that I maybe should have done differently, but it still has special meaning to me, and at the time I thought it was just perfect.

"The Sweetheart" was my second violin made specially for my sweetheart daughter Mari. This violin was made around a theme involving cameos. There are a total of 8 cameos embedded in the scroll, fingerboard, tail piece, end pin, and the pegs. All these parts were hand made from cocobolo. The back and sides are European maple and the top is European spruce.

The Raffle Fiddle was made and donated to a group of kids under the leadership of an awesome fiddle teacher named Jeri Halford. With the proceeds from this raffle, she was able to help send numerous kids to summer fiddle camps, and to help with expenses to get to their gigs. The drawing was held at the Montana state fiddle contest, and won by a man that never played it. I was very happy to hear that Sue Jostrum had hunted down the man who had won it and purchased it from him. I know that it will be played and cared for.

This violin was my first experiment with domestic wood. I used big leaf quilted maple for the back and side and engleman spruce for the top. It has been a long time since I have heard it, but I still think it might be the best sounding violin that I have made.

I had a lot of fun embellishing this one. I had just purchased a quantity of legal ivory scraps from a scrimshaw factory in Seattle, so the nut, saddle, and fingerboard were done in ivory.

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Jostrum Violin

This violin was commissioned by Gabe Jostrum's parents. This was my first commissioned instrument, and it has been very special to me to watch and hear Gabe become a very fine fiddle player over the years on a violin that I made for him.

This was my first electric instrument, and it was also made for my son. He was just starting high school, and not real excited about orchestra any more. I didn't want him to quit his music, so I thought maybe an electric violin and fiddle lessons might be just what he needed to stay interested.  I started by designing a new mold and finding some real nice quilted maple. Because it was to be an electric violin, the top was made of maple also. It made it a little heavy but very nice to look at. All the fittings were made from purple heart like his acoustic fiddle. The pick up came from Zeta before they had a policy of putting them on their own instruments only.

This Cello was commissioned by the famous Josie Parsons. She was in need of an instrument that could compete with the electric guitars in her band. Her answer was this electric fish cello that we designed using all the measurements from her acoustic cello. It is constructed of western Big leaf Quilted maple and Purple Heart. The transducer was made by Rich Barbera, and the ivory inlay on the fingerboard was designed by miss Parsons herself. The neck and body of this instrument can be easily separated from the rib outline and can be played like a bass guitar.

This unique Cello was a very fun project to be a part of and very rewarding to see that Josie doesn't have to play "second fiddle" to an electric guitar anymore.

This electric violin was made for Joan Renne, an exceptionally talented violin teacher. It was made from a beautiful piece of burl maple with both birds eye and curl present. The fingerboard and tail piece were made from Mountain Mahogany. The pegs and the inlays were made from thin slices of end grain of a mountain mahogany log that Joan had been storing for many years. When we cut into it, we found that it had been infested with insects that had bored holes throughout the entire branch. We thought it was useless until we saw what a spectacular pattern had been made viewing it from the end grain.

Inspired by one of my favorite fiddlers of all time, I thought it would be awesome to have one of my violins autographed by him. I pitched the idea to him via his website and he most graciously agreed to sign the inside of the back if I was to send it to him. I did so and he signed and promptly returned it so that I could finish assembling it.

It is made from some awesome quilted maple hand picked by Bruce Harvey of Orcas Island Tonewoods.

This violin was made with some alternative woods as an experiment, thinking that if it didn’t sound good, I could put a pickup on it and make it an electric violin. I was pleasantly surprised that this instrument had a great accoustic voice when finished. I also fit a L.R. Baggs bridge for it , so this sweet fiddle has the best of both.

The back, sides, and neck are made from a very nicely figured Makore. The top was carved from a piece of local Western Red Cedar. The scroll was split and laminated with maple and ebony. An ivory eye was inserted in the scroll.

The fingerboard and tail piece were carved out of a beautiful black gaboon ebony, and the nut and saddle are ivory.

This 4 string electric violin was started in 1998 as a commission for a young man who wanted an electric violin with a eagle head instead of the normal scroll on the neck. I got a good start on it but soon found out that my client was way to impatient to wait for this violin to be completed. Because I had taken no deposit, I suggested that he should buy a completed violin elsewhere.

After sitting for several years, this project was revived after visiting a friend of mine that carved beautiful birds as a hobby. He inspired me to make the eagle head a little more realistic looking, and to continue the feather scheme farther down the body of the violin. Because I had not yet carved the top and back plates, I was able to leave extra wood on the back for the wings, and on the top for the breast feathers. Not being a wood carver, The turtle pace continued as I honed my carving skills on a few practice pieces. Once I had gained a little confidence, there was some slow steady progress over the next few years.

The Beautiful quilted maple wood on the back and sides came from Bruce Harvey at Orcas Island Tonewoods, as did the Port Orford Cedar used on the top plate. The finger board, Pegs, end button and tail piece were carved from a piece of Black Palm wood from Gilmer Woods. The Black Palm seemed to be a good fit with the eagle motif as it seems to favor the likeness of feathers. The nut, saddle, pegs and tailpiece are accented in ivory.

The warm heavenly sound comes from the transducer bridge made by Rich Barbera at Barbera Transducer Systems. The sound that comes out of this unique violin is something to behold.

This violin was very fun and exciting to build. It was the first one built on a new mould that was designed just for a 5 string. In an attempt to get a little more volume in the body for a more robust C string, the body was made about a half inch longer than standard, but maintains a standard string length. In addition to the added length, the ribs taper from a high of 36mm on the lower bass side bout to 28mm on the upper treble side bout.

The wood choice was also experimental. the back and sides were made from Camphor burl, which gives the inside of this violin a very aromatic smell. The top was carved from a nice piece of curly redwood. The neck was made from curly maple. The back was accented with a piece of curly maple down the center, and the top has curly maple banding the soft redwood edges.

The neck has a curvy peg box fitted with Wittner fine tune pegs with an 8.5 to 1 gear ration. Finger board and tail piece are hand carved from high quality ebony. nut and saddle are ivory.

This violin was inspired by the French maker Bodo Vosshenrich. Not knowing any of his actual dimensions, I just replicated the basic outline and then reversed it, thinking there might  be some value to having a bit of a cut out on the treble side. The body length is slightly longer than standard, but the string length is standard. The rib height tapers from 38.5mm at the button to 32mm at the neck. This added volume has made for a great sounding C string without affecting the balance of the other strings.

The back, sides, and neck were carved from quilted big leaf maple and the top made from a high altitude englemann spruce. The scroll was carved with my own single turn Florentine design that was highlighted with copper foil on the edges. The back of the scroll and heel were carved and highlighted with gold and copper foil.

The finger board and tail piece were hand carved out of Bois de Rose, a rare Madagascar Rosewood. The nut and saddle are ivory.

This violin is fitted with Wittner fine tune pegs and D’Adario Helicore strings.

This violin was inspired by a patent issued to Frank Merwin Ashley in 1921. I loved the shape of this violin, but the construction method is also quite unique. The top and back plates are not carved like a conventional violin, but rather a thin piece of wood that is pressed in a form and then glued to the ribs that vary in height to also allow for curvarture of the plates.

This prototype has a back and sides made of quilted maple. The top is made from a fine grained Port Orford Cedar. Blocks are Spruce and the linings are Alaskan Yellow Cedar. The finger board and the hand carved Fleur de Lis tail piece are made of Bois de Rose, one of the rarest rosewoods from Madagascar.

The scroll was carved with a florentine, and the F holes are my original interpretation of the florentine F hole. There is a carved Fleur de Lis on the back of the scroll that has been covered with 24 K gold leaf. The peg box is fitted with Wittner fine tuning pegs that I have come to really like. They took a while to get used to, but the pros outweigh the cons, and the 8.5 - 1 gear ratio totally eliminates the need for fine tuners on the tail piece.