What Goes Into Building a Violin - Article 1 of 3 in a series dedicated to the craft of building an instrument

Most people encounter a violin as a finished object and do not see what goes into building it.

They see polished varnish, elegant curves, carefully carved scrollwork, and strings stretched neatly across a bridge. To a player, it may feel expressive or responsive. To an audience, it may simply sound beautiful.

Before a violin becomes an instrument, though, it begins as a long series of decisions.

The wood matters. The way the wood is cut matters. The way the wood is dried matters. The shape matters. The thicknesses of the top and back matter. Minuscule differences in carving, arching, weight, or setup can affect how the instrument responds under the player’s hands.

Building a violin is more than assembly. It's interpretation. It's art.

Meadowood Music exists to a large extent because violin builder and co-owner Mike Andrews wanted a place to feature his instruments. Mike’s work gives those associated with Meadowood a direct window into the craft behind handmade instruments. While many musicians only see the finished result, builders experience the instrument at every stage — from selecting raw materials to shaping the final voice of the violin.

A violin begins with carefully chosen tonewoods: spruce for the top and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. These woods are valued not simply because they are attractive, but because of how they vibrate and respond acoustically. Even within the same species, no two pieces of wood are exactly alike.

Density, grain spacing, stiffness, age, and moisture content all influence the character of the finished instrument. A builder learns to evaluate wood not just visually, but physically and acoustically — through weight, flexibility, resonance, and experience developed over years of work.

From there, the violin gradually takes shape through carving and refinement.

The curved arching of the top and back plates is not only aesthetic. Those curves help determine how energy moves through the instrument. The builder carefully graduates the thicknesses of the arched top and back of the violin, balancing strength, flexibility, projection, warmth, and responsiveness. The glue that holds the wood together and the varnish that gives it its luster contribute to the sound as well

What appears delicate from the outside is actually a highly engineered acoustic system. Those technical decisions are also shaped by historical tradition. Mike patterns his violins after those of Leandro Bisiach (1864 – 1945), who patterned his violins after those of earlier Italian masters. The Bisiach instrument that Mike uses as his template was one that Bisiach modeled after Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737). Mike admires and aspires to achieve some of what those venerated violin makers achieved in their instruments - artistry that transcends the technical, mechanical aspects of building.

Two violins built from similar materials, using similar measurements, can still feel and sound remarkably different. This is one reason handmade instruments continue to hold such fascination for players and builders alike. Craftsmanship involves precision, but also judgment, listening, and adaptation. Builders like Bisiach and Stradivari embodied all of those things.

Mike describes the process as one that requires patience at every stage. There is no point where a builder can rush the work without consequences later. Small details compound over time.

The fitting of the bass bar.The shaping of the bridge.The neck angle.The varnish.The final setup.

Each step influences the instrument’s eventual “personality.”

For many musicians, especially students, seeing the inside of the process changes the way they think about instruments entirely. A violin stops feeling like a generic object pulled from a shelf and starts feeling like the result of human skill, material knowledge, and accumulated tradition.

That perspective matters because instruments are not interchangeable tools in the same way many manufactured products are. Even factory-made instruments are unique from each other and require extensive adjustment and setup work before they truly function well for a player.

Handmade building takes that relationship between material, maker, and player even further.

In future articles, we’ll explore more about how materials influence sound, why shape and construction affect tone, and why handmade instruments continue to matter in a world increasingly dominated by mass production. Understanding begins here: Before a violin becomes music, it exists as a craft.

Bisiach built this violin in 1910. Its label identifies it as a copy of a 1704 Stradivari model, likely inspired by the famous “Betts” Stradivarius now housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

That tradition of studying and learning from earlier makers continues today in Mike’s own work.

At Meadowood Music, we currently have the very first violin Mike ever built, along with Paula’s violin, “Helene,” at the shop. Visitors interested in the craft are always welcome to stop by and see them in person. We can also arrange to show a violin currently in progress at Mike’s workshop, offering a rare opportunity to see an instrument before it reaches its finished form.

Local fiddler Betty Druckenmiller performs on one of Mike’s violins, “Mary,” continuing the tradition of these instruments not simply being displayed, but actively played and carried into the community. The other violins Mike has built are out in the world as well — being practiced on, performed on, and cared for by the musicians for whom they were made.

If you would like to see the Mike Andrews violins we have here, or the stockpile of tone woods Mike has for future violins, or the tools for building, just ask.

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