Violin Making

Needs more than a couple paragraphs on finishing. But does ok on construction.

It would take as many pages as this book itself to describe everything that is wrong with it. A glance at the writer's own instruments on pages 16-17 is enough to illustrate the bad place this text is taking you. It is clumsy, ill-informed and shoddy.

There are far better books out there, for instance "Violin-Making" by Juliet Barker and "The Art of Violin Making" by Johnson & Courtnall.

Making your first violin is an investment of two or three hundred hours and two or three hundred dollars in materials, never mind the tools. At least start that journey with a decent book, so all the effort is not wasted.

I was off to the races building my first violin. The layout of this book is great. The illustrations are very well done. Great book for first time violin builders - or even guitar/mandolin builders who want to add violins to their repertoire.