Alan Ward Violin & Cellomaker/Restorer Established 1984
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. UK
Telephone: (+44) 01494 523371
Email:
Finest quality violins violas & cellos — handmade in the traditional way
Modern : Classical : Baroque & Commissions — For professional players, students & amateurs
Elegant clean workmanship throughout using only the best selected materials
Instrument restoration setting-up & repairs also to the highest standards
Prizes for cello making:
Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) International Cello Festival 1990, & Facta Britannia 1986
The Newark School of Violin Making — Graduating: Diploma with Distinction 1982
Further experience in the workshops of Peter Biddulph & W E Hill and Sons Ltd.
Mostly in restoration and the setting-up of many fine quality instruments.
Experience & Training:
Making / Restoration / Repairs
Since establishing my workshop 20 years ago work has been spread equally between making new instruments — mostly cellos in recent years, and the restoration & repair of a wide variety of older instruments — e.g. Carcassi, Celoniato, Grancino, Guadagnini, Bernadel, Chanot, etc..
A full range of technical support is offered (except bow work). Anything can be done to put an instrument back into an excellent condition — from tonal adjustments and setting-up — to plastercasts of various parts for fitting internal patches etc. that will conserve and support original but cracked and damaged areas.
For anyone whose violin etc. is in need of emergency remedial work I would be very pleased to help out. This could be anything from — telephone advice, a minor adjustment, gluing an open seam or removing a buzz — to perhaps even major restoration. Unfortunately accidents do happen occasionally, but instruments can be restored successfully.
Clients come from around the UK and abroad and include — BBC Orchestras, Alberni Quartet, LSO, National Youth Orchestra, and the Benslow Musical Instrument Loan Scheme which has purchased two cellos and two violins.
Insurance work undertaken — mostly for Allianz Cornhill (formerly British Reserve).
The Newark School of Violin Making
A three year full-time training course at one of the worlds finest schools making several violins, a viola and a cello, with one year spent learning basic techniques in repairs, restoration, and retouching varnishes.
Most were mature students and many were from abroad — some were very good players too. We were all very keen to develop our skills and spent most of our spare time continuing to work and study at home (there were grants for some in those days!).
It was an extraordinarily interesting and special time — quite unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
New Violins Violas & Cellos
Generally my instruments are based on the works of Old Masters — for example a cello by Giovani Grancino of 1693 that has been a successful model in my repertoire for some years now.
Violins of Antonio Stradivari tend to suit my making style most — although a Nicolo Amati of 1663 the Spagnoletti is something I've recently used (example in Gallery1), and violas of various models scaled to modern size preferences. I’ve also made half and quarter size Strad violins and instruments of my own design.
I am happy to make anything required to commission — model or colour etc.. Alternatively players can choose from instruments currently available.
Spruce Maple Sycamore Ebony Rosewood Pearwood Willow Poplar
Everything is made by hand in the traditional way
First the drawings, templates and the form on which to build the instrument’s body. The front (belly or table) is of spruce pine, and the back the ribs (sides) and the scroll are of highly figured Bosnian maple, see Gallery1.
The ribs are bent on a hot bending-iron and built around the form. The front, back, and scroll are shaped from solid wood with gouges and thumb-planes, and finished with sharp steel scrapers. The f holes cut, and the bassbar is accurately chalk-fitted to the inside of the front. With these parts assembled the ebony fingerboard and nut are added completing the instrument ‘in the white’ which is now ready for sealing and varnishing.
The fittings — soundpost pegs bridge saddle endpin tailpiece etc. and strings follow the varnishing process.
The Ground under the Varnish
Wood surface is coloured by sunlight or UV light in a cupboard lined with foil (we in the UK don’t have Italian sunshine quite so reliably). A sympathetic golden wood-sealer of special historic compounds is then applied as a ground to protect the wood surface against moisture dirt and abrasion — as the decorative but delicate varnish will wear off parts of the edges, back etc.. Attention is paid to matching the refractive-index of the sealing-coat materials to the wood. This achieves the optimum beauty of the varnished wood.
Varnish & Pigments
About six coats of crystal clear coloured varnish — resins and linseed oil cooked as far up the garden as possible(!) are carefully applied. Each coat of varnish has the consistency of honey which is levelled-out with the palm of the hand to obtain a thin even layer and therefore uniform colour — transparent colour darkening with each coat.
Varnish colours range from amber through burnt-orange to ruby-red.
Transparent lake pigments are made from the true Madder plant (Rubia Tinctorum). The ruby colour of the madder pigment is extracted from the plant’s roots with a strong alkaline solution and fixed on an alum mordant.
Even the paper and the name stamps for my label inside are handmade.
Aloes Amber Sandarac Colophony Mastic Madder Linseed Oil
The violin as such is an amazingly wonderful design
It never ceases to amaze me that at its best the violin is a beautiful and elegant object — visually, musically and technically — especially the finest examples of the Old Masters. Using the same materials and construction techniques of the past, the best makers of today are also producing excellent instruments that are sure to become valuable antiques of the future.
This is due mainly to the study of the finest old instruments, the increasing development of restoration skills and the extensive modern research into old documents and treatises.
Therefore, these are exciting times in the violin trade, which have enormous benefits to makers and players of new instruments.