Violin Forum/Message Board

[Chet Bishop]

This thing about "how long does it take to build a violin?" has come up before. I have personally talked with several men who worked in the old Mirecourt shops. They universally agreed that one violin a week, in the white, was minimal.

My mentor trained there, and said that his graduation assignment from that apprenticeship was to complete a high-quality violin using only hand tools, and three-strip loose purfling. He was handed rough wood, and the loose purfling strips and given exactly forty hours in which to complete the violin. He says he knew it was a reasonable demand, as his master could complete two in the same period of time.

Are there places in China where hundreds of workers mindlessly repeat the same task, over and over, to collectively crank out thousands of instruments a month? Of course there are. But if a maker here assumes 200 hours is normal, he/she should be warned that the wave of makers from China is reaching tsunami porportions, and they are not all bad. Some are VERY good.
_________________
Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[mr_violin]

The one thing that has stopped so many Chinese violin factory workers from going out on their own. That is starting their own shop making better quality violins, is that they only know how to make one or two different parts of the violin.

And just to clear up one thing I said; That small shop that makes my violins for me in one week, they are only making the violin “in the white.
So, Chet;
They are making them at the same speed as what you are saying.

[Chet Bishop]

That was my point-- China has become the Mirecourt of today.
_________________
Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[kurtdaniel]

string instruments made in China has gone a long way since I started teaching violin classes 20 years ago. The main reason is that over these 2 decades, more and more instrument luthiers go to China to be on-site supervising their products.