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I posted a note about having my new violin adjusted and some new pegs installed. The shop did not charge anything for this and Fiddlerman was impressed. He asked me to put some information about this violin shop on the forum. I first went to Manchester Music in Ballwin, Missouri to have my soundpost on my Cecilio $100 blue violin looked at. Andrey Lobko, the owner, greeted me and really listened to my request. He treated my very inexpensive violin, and me, with great respect. He told me exactly what he was going to do, and other things he was going to look at. I wound up with a new soundpost, the bridge feet adjusted to make better contact with the belly, and the tailpiece adjusted to the correct position. $30. That is the price he quoted me to replace the sound post if needed. I went back to the store and purchased a better violin, both he and his dad were very helpful as I made my selection. His dad is Mikhail Lobko and he is a violin instructor. I am putting a link up for Manchester Music. Have a look at the lessons and teachers page, Mikhail has quite the resume. If you are in East Central Missouri or Western Illinois, and you need some work done on a violin, this is the place! I really lucked out finding this shop. Like I always say, "I would rather be lucky than good."
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Sounds like a cool luthier, I haven't found one by me yet, "Calling Out Luthiers in Laguna Beach, California". I sure don't trust delivery services especially shipped out of state and what not. The soundpost has a great chance of being nudged during transport.
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I was just looking at repair prices on their website, to fit a bridge is $40 and New pegs installed is $75. Over a hundred dollars worth of work he did as part of setting up my violin, weeks after the purchase!
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This is the way to do business. He knows that he will have his customers forever if he treats them right and with respect. Not like the snob that MGN found and wouldn't even look at cheap violins.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Our luthier comes highly recommended by everyone. I've not had him do anything but replace a bridge on one of the kid's tiny violins....until now.
I dropped off my "family heirloom" (the heirloom part would imply value, which I don't think it has, but it is very old and has been in the family for at least 80 years) to have him clean it, give it a new bridge, put on new strings and basically get it ready for me since I want to use it to practice with my kids. Also the bow....a strip of silver fell off the frog around the mother of pearl inlay and I broke the ivory tip off about 2 days after I got it by dropping it (many years ago, in high school), and sometimes the tip actually gets wedged around the string when I'm trying to place the bow down for an upbow. Very annoying.
That was June.
I call him once every three weeks. How's it going? What's going on? Hate to bug you but is my violin ready?
I don't think he's even looked at it yet. School kids need their violins done first. But three months?? Really?! I would go and pick it up but he's the only luthier I know about. What can I do? This is my only accoustic violin....I mean there are some in my closet but they are also stringless and bridgeless.
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I would pick it up right away. Maybe call him and don't be so nice, say that you are coming to pick it up now and he may change his priorities a little.
The only one I know is Duffy's but when I dropped off my bow last time I told them that I was not in a hurry since I have 4 great bows and when I wanted to pick it up the day before I flew to Sweden it wasn't ready after 6 weeks. Sometimes you have to give them a deadline.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I told him I wasn't in a hurry either. Perhaps I should have explained better. I meant like, take a week or two; not, some time in 2011 would be fine.
I just called. He doesn't remember me. He said he is swamped. He hasn't even started on it yet.
Perhaps I am in the wrong profession. Perhaps I should go train with him. Evidently there is plenty of business.
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Jauniba said:
I just called. He doesn't remember me. He said he is swamped. He hasn't even started on it yet.
That is incredible, you call him every three weeks and he doesn't even remember. How old is this guy?
Perhaps I am in the wrong profession. Perhaps I should go train with him. Evidently there is plenty of business.
I think you are on to something. Success is dependent upon supply and demand.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
I did not know that training was required to be a luthier. I thought that the important skill was knowing how to create an attractive web site.
I learn something new every day !
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The one I'm using doesn't even use a computer that I know of. He was recommend by a local misic store. He has done some minor work on a 3/4 size fiddle for me before. He seems to know his stuff, I'm currently waiting to get a fiddle back from him that I dropped off last week, that required some reglueing of a seam. When I get it back I'll post the results and his name.
I delight to see a report about a good luthier experience.
They are rare and deserve any good publicity.
Actually, I would like to see a separate topic which would be an ongoing collection of reports.
I think there was a FM posting about luthiers but that sank to the bottom of the BreakRoom, I think. We need a subject or topic that becomes part of the Forum with routine visibility.
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He's 75. Every string player I have ever met in this area recommends him. I think he is a legend. Works from home. Just, evidently, not that fast. He has hundreds and hundreds of instruments all over his house. No computers.
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I found Manchester Music on a web search. I went to their site, and it was not flashy, loaded quickly and was very straight forward. Believe it or not, I like that. I think the entire site is 4 pages. It is more or less simply a presence page:
Here we are, this is what we do, here is how to get here, here is how to contact us.
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