A Wm. Moennig & Son Memory - Lynn Harrell
Hearing of the death of the great Cellist Lynn Harrell last week reminded of me of a vivid memory from the Moennig days....somewhere near the age of 90...the legendary Cellist and teacher at Curtis ( and teacher of…
Beautiful 15 1/8" Viola by Ernst Heinrich Roth 1922
This 1922 Ernst Heinrich Roth viola — 15 1/8 inches, original label, original oval brand on the back — came out of the same Markneukirchen world the Moennig family left when they came to Philadelphia.
Cello soundpost crack
A fifteen-minute walk through Pittsburgh in the cold split a long soundpost crack across the top of this old German cello, which was already carrying somebody else's clumsy repairs and a handwritten inscription worth reading carefully.
Major violin repair
A violin dropped from shoulder height came in with its top split in two pieces, the crack running straight through the soundpost area.
Beautiful Juzek Master Arts Viola
This 1938 Juzek Master Arts came to me with the neck unglued and a bass bar that needed replacing — not unusual for a viola that had clearly been sitting untouched for decades.
Wonderful way to wait out the Virus
I've spent the pandemic working daily in my home workshop, repairing, restoring, and building instruments with fewer interruptions than I've had in years.
Cello press out
I've been pressing sunken cello tops back into shape for twenty-five years using a heated sandbag I stitched together at Moennig, and it still does the job.
Varnish Restoration on a fine Carl Becker Cello
Carl Becker made some of the finest cellos in American history, and this 1930s example came to the bench with its signature reddish-orange varnish worn through in the places a cellist's body meets the instrument every day.
Stunning Sebastian Vuilluame violin
Sebastian Vuilluame put his name on this violin, but the back was almost certainly cut and carved by Nestor Audinot, the craftsman who ran his shop and eventually inherited it.
Collin-Mezin cello
This Collin-Mezin cello from the 1870s came through the shop recently, and after thirty years of handling French instruments, I still stop at the varnish on this one.
5 string conversion
Derek Barnes needed his older German cello to play five strings, so the first thing to go was the fingerboard — replaced with a wider one flared just enough to give the E string somewhere to actually land.
Dramatic cello back
Andrea Postacchini built this cello in mid-19th century Italy, and it has been sitting in the Philadelphia Orchestra ever since — which made it hard to put down once I got it on the bench.
Dramatic fall leads to a painstaking repair
A 1940s Italian violin dropped from shoulder height and the neck joint blew out at the button, which had been repaired before but never properly patched across the purfling channel.
Pristine Vuilluame viola
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume built this viola in Paris in 1847 — opus 1773, 396mm, in condition so clean it barely looks played — and a former Primrose student still takes it out every morning before most people are awake.
Exquisite Amati scroll
Last week I had a Brothers Amati on the bench, and I probably spent forty minutes just looking at the scroll before I picked up a tool.
Cello neck graft
Last fall, a Temple student who studies with Jeff Solow brought me a cello with a sheared scroll, and getting it back together meant starting a neck graft from scratch.
Making a cello Curtis worthy
Andres Sanchez brought me his cello about a year before his Curtis audition, and by the time we were done I had replaced the bass bar, reset the neck angle, and fit a new bridge and post.
Beautiful JB Vuilluame f hole
Looking closely at the bass f hole on a Vuillaume viola that came through my shop, you can see exactly how his carvers controlled the flare from both soundholes out to the notches and back.
The soul of it all
Inside a cello corpus, looking through the endpin hole, you can see exactly what keeps a spruce top from collapsing under full string tension: the bass bar, the soundpost, and two square inches of bridge feet.
A new top block in a fine cello ( with button reinforcement)
Replacing the top block in this cello meant pulling the neck, reinforcing a broken button, and inlaying a doubling patch before the whole joint could be rebuilt correctly.
Beautiful Helmuth Keller viola c. 1970
Helmuth Keller made this viola at Moennig's in the early 1970s as a copy of Gaspar da Salo, and after handling several of his instruments over the years, I'd put it among his best work.
Using "spring" to help restore cracks
Sunken cracks on old cello tops are a real problem, and fitting spruce cleats with a slight arch built in — the same spring principle I use on bass bars — is how I pull them back up.
Fitting a new bass bar ( with "spring") in a nice old German cello
Last week I pulled the bass bar out of a nice old German cello and found it undersized, poorly positioned, and fitted flat against the top with no spring at all.
A fine Telesphore Barbe violin
Last month I finished setting up a Telesphore Barbe violin from around 1870, one of his own instruments, made after he left Vuilluame's shop on Rue Croix des Petits Champs.
2 great violas in the Philadelphia Orchestra
Two Italian violas in the Philadelphia Orchestra come through my shop regularly enough that I can hear a new opening before I've even picked up the instrument.
Another Moennig era memory
Toshiya Eto brought a Pressenda into the Moennig shop one afternoon that needed its fingerboard planed down considerably, and I was the one who started taking it apart.
Beautiful old German violin from the Kloz school
This Kloz school violin came in with its original neck set intact — too short, too low by today's standards, and almost certainly unplayed for generations.
Preparing 2 beautiful 3/4 violins
Two German 3/4 violins from around 1930 are heading to Little Rock, where a student plays under Drew Irvin, Concertmaster of the Arkansas Symphony.
Working on the cello to be played solo at state funeral
Last week I set up the cello that will be played solo at Beau Biden's state funeral, a quiet afternoon of bench work bound for one of the largest rooms in Washington.
An interesting Moennig era memory
Jesus Morales came by the shop last week with a new Peter Westerlund cello — a copy of Orlando Cole's 1739 Montagnana, the "Sleeping Beauty" — and it took me straight back to Moennig's.
A great night of cello work at the bench
Three cellos in the shop tonight: Udi Bar-David's Italian cello from the Philadelphia Orchestra needs varnish work, Jeff Solow brought in a possible Panormo, and a 1909 Carlo Carletti is getting a neck reset.
Neck graft on Didier Nicolas violin c. 1860
Didier Nicolas built this violin around 1860 with a neck too short and set too low, so last week I cut the scroll free and started fitting a new graft.
Great cello by Sebastian Vuilluame
Sebastian Vuillaume's cello came in with a long crack across the top, which gave me a good reason to spend time inside an instrument I'd only ever read about.
Yearly hiking trips out west!
Every year, I join four friends for a week-long hiking trip out west, hitting spots like Mt. Rainier, the Aspen Rockies, and the Grand Canyon.
Noble, old Italian cello
A Cremonese cello from the late 1600s came through the shop needing the bass bar pulled so I could get to a crack underneath it, fit studs, and then notch a new bar to clear them.
Fine examples of teacher and pupil
Telesphore Barbe made his Messiah copy while working under Vuillaume, and his student Victor Audinot later produced a Guarneri del Gesù copy that holds its own beside the teacher's work.
Yoni re-connecting with his cello
Yoni Dreilbate's loaner cello, a 1960s Joseph Condax built on a Montagnana model, had been losing projection for years to a neck angle too low to drive the top.
Fine Paul Bailley violin c. 1890
Paul Bailley trained under both Galliard and J. B. Vuillaume, and this c. 1890 Stradivari copy shows exactly what that education produced — bold workmanship with nothing sloppy about it.
Beautiful Vuillume cello having the neck reset
Last week I pulled the neck on a Vuillaume cello that belongs to the principal cellist of the Philly Pops — after 150-odd years, the string tension finally won.
The violinists of the Dover Quartet
Bryan Lee and Joel Link of the Dover Quartet run through Philadelphia on tight schedules, so I've learned to do serious work on an Antoniazzi and a Brothers Gagliano with a departure time already on the clock.
2 weeks working at the Conservatorio de Musica in San Juan - (in sunny,warm January!)
Miguel Rojas had three weeks before performing Don Quixote with the San Juan Symphony when I flew down to reset the neck angle on his Montagnana-model cello and fit a new fingerboard.
The violinists of the Dali Quartet
Simon Gollo and Carlos Rubio came in this week before the Dali Quartet heads south on tour, and Carlos is still deciding whether the 1930 Leon Mougenot is the right fit for the concerts ahead.
A beautiful Nicolo Gagliano
This Nicolo Gagliano from the 1760s measures just 35.2 cm — small for a violin — but it projects with a focus and power that has nothing to do with its size.
Summer holiday with a legendary composer
Every summer, my wife Rachel and I visit her uncle Ned Rorem at his place on Nantucket, and a day with him will typically move from a bike ride to a remote beach straight into an argument about Satie.
Nice Gaetano Gadda violin.....that was once thought to be more
A Pittsburgh Symphony violinist handed me his Gadda — labeled Scarampella, which it isn't — and asked me to fix what twenty years of frustration hadn't.
Part of the Philly Fringe Festival 2013
At the 2013 Philly Fringe Festival, I set up at the bench onstage while (So) Percussion played around me, finishing cello work loud enough that Beethoven would have had trouble keeping up.
Fitting a new bass bar to a fine Gofriller cello
Last month I opened up a Gofriller cello from around 1700, owned by a Philadelphia cellist, to fit a new bass bar — one of maybe five hundred of these instruments still being played.
Offering an exquisite French 3/4 violin for sale
This 3/4 Grandjon et Fils from the late 1800s has better purfling miters than most full-size violins I see coming through the shop.
Soundpost Adjustment
David Nicastro rode his motorcycle to the shop with two violas to get the soundpost set on his Westerlund, and we spent two days moving it fractions of a millimeter before he finally nodded.
Haide instruments - wonderful instruments at a wonderful price
Dick Donovan and I have been setting up Haide instruments since Moennig's closed in 2009, and this Baroque cello going to Brooklyn cellist Ismar Gomes needed a smaller bass bar and thinner plates to work right under gut strings.
Lorenzo Ventapane cello Naples 1810
Chris Gautier's 1810 Ventapane cello came in sounding flat and sunken at the bass bar, and fixing that meant a new bar, crack repair, and a neck reset to take a Belgian bridge.
Breast patch on a fine Peter Wamsley cello
Fitting a breast patch to this Peter Wamsley cello meant first casting the sunken top, correcting the arching under heat and pressure, then carving spruce to hold it there.
The ex-Lanza Balestrieri violin of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Dara Morales plays this Tommaso Balestrieri violin in the Philadelphia Orchestra today, but it spent decades in the section with Mr. Lanza, who left it to the orchestra when he died.
Yikes! Basses...but for the good cause of "Play on Philly"
Cutting a new bridge for a donated student bass isn't my favorite kind of job, but Play on Philly asked, Stan Thompson showed up with the instrument, and that was that.
A visit from a legend
Lorne Munroe stopped by this week to collect his 1962 Thomas Elmer cello after a round of repairs, and spent an hour telling me about watching Elmer arch cello backs over his bathtub in a small Philadelphia apartment.
Fine Carl Becker violin - played by Sein An
Sein An is taking a Carl Becker "del Gesu" copy from the 1920s to the Enescu Competition in Romania, and before she left, the violin needed new gluing, bridge work, and a fingerboard adjustment.
A visit from Luigi Mazzocchi
Luigi Mazzocchi stopped by last week, tried half the bow rack, and left with a 3/4 cello for his son, who'll be studying with Jesus Morales.
Dom Nicolo Amati cello Bologna 1721
Tom Krainis's 1721 Dom Nicolo Amati cello came in needing a bridge, endpin, and tailpiece — and turned out to be one of the few instruments wearing that label that actually earned it.
Weather crack on a very nice French cello c. 1920
Minzo Kim's French cello came in last month with a weather crack bad enough that I had to open two-thirds of the top just to get the clamp in.
Pretending to feel good
Last Sunday I hit mile 22 of the Philly Marathon looking like a corpse while grinning for every camera, and honestly, bench work Monday morning felt like a vacation.
New fingerboard on a lovely French violin -with lovely handwriting
Fitting a new fingerboard on a 1919 Mougenot from Mirecourt meant a good long look at the inscription inside — ornate French script, the kind Bill Moennig's handwriting always made me think of.
Looking over a beautiful Amati - The ex-Primrose
Roberto Diaz brought in the ex-Primrose Amati viola last week, and finding anything wrong with it takes longer than the actual repair.
C bout repair to a fine Czech violin
Decades of exuberant bowing had worn the treble C bout of this Czech violin down to the purfling, so I replaced the edging entirely with matched spruce and touched up the varnish.
Starting a del Gesu model
I pulled out my old del Gesu notes last week and realized the last copy I built was closer to fifteen years ago than the five I'd been telling myself.
My tennis team goes to Nationals!
When I'm not bent over a workbench shaping necks or fitting bridges, I'm on the clay courts of Elkins Park, and this fall my 4.5 USTA team took that game all the way to Palm Springs.
A family affair
Ricardo Morales just watched his wife Amy Oshiro play her c. 1880 Télesphore Barbe — a Vuillaume workshop violin carrying a Gustave Bazin letter calling it the finest Barbe he'd ever seen.
Beautiful Giuseppe Lucci 1972 cello
Metta Watts played this Giuseppe Lucci Roma 1972 cello for years before deciding she could finally let it go, and now it's on my bench with the top off for the first time in a long time.
A fascinating coming together
David Cole sat in my shop last week playing a 1939 Moennig copy of his father Orlando's Montagnana, the Sleeping Beauty, while the cello was in for peg hole bushing.
Jaime Amador - Violist in the San Juan Symphony
Jaime Amador, principal violist with the San Juan Symphony, stopped by this week to try out his Italian viola after some major work and test a few Haide copies I've been setting up.
New bridge for playing a concerto
C.J., principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, needed a taller bridge fitted before he took the Walton concerto to the stage, so we spent a few sessions working out exactly what that instrument wanted.
Latest bridge
Cutting a new bridge for a Gaetano Antoniazzi violin this week — the blank started at 4.5mm at the heart and came down considerably from there.
Bumpy ride on Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines broke the neck graft on an early 19th-century German cello, and now I'm cutting it out of the body and starting over.
Beautiful 18th century Italian cello
A cello on loan from the Guildhall School in London came in needing glue work throughout and left with a new Belgian bridge cut to give Bart Lafollette's playing more punch and projection.
A nice 1780 Chappuy violin suffers a dramatic injury
A 1780 Chappuy violin came in last week with the neck ripped clean out of the body after a fall, taking the button with it.
Didier Nicolas violin c. 1825 needs a neck graft
The Didier Nicolas violin on my bench right now, built around 1825, has its original neck — and that's the problem.
Nice German cello needs a soundpost patch
A badly placed soundpost left this German cello with a cracked top, so before the new post goes in, the spruce around the damage gets carved down to one millimeter and patched with fresh wood.
Neck Graft on J. B. Vuilluame cello
Last spring a Vuillaume cello came in with its neck sheared clean off, and now it has to be back on stage for a Dutilleux performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra cello section.
Late night bass bar
William Forster built this small English viola around 1800 with a higher arch than usual, which means the bass bar inside it wants to be slighter than most people leave it.
A nice JTL Medio Fino c. 1910
I picked up this JTL Medio Fino around 1910 out of Mirecourt, deep red varnish intact, and spent a good stretch bringing it back to where it wants to be.
Karen Brown of Brooklyn evokes her Scottish homeland on a nice JTL Medio Fino
Karen Brown tried a dozen fiddles before a French JTL Medio Fino shut down the search.
A beautiful,rugged viola by C.A Testore 1756
A 1756 Carlo Antonio Testore viola just came back from China with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and now it needs gluing, varnish work, and a close look before it goes back to work.
Antonio Cavalazzi 1935 Ravenna
A 1935 violin by Antonio Cavalazzi of Ravenna came in last week needing a new fingerboard, and I keep stopping mid-task just to look at the scroll.
Irv Ludwig
Irv Ludwig, Philadelphia Orchestra veteran and Lansdowne Symphony conductor, came by the studio last week to try fiddles for a student and spent a good while with an H. Blaise from Mirecourt, around 1920.
Powerful 17" Moennig Jr viola
Bill Moennig Jr. built this 17-inch viola in 1943 for Samuel Lifschey, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the lower register still stops you cold.
Principal Viola of the Phila Orchestra
CJ's early Italian viola came in last week, and after twenty-plus years watching that instrument develop under his playing, it barely resembles the viola we first worked on together at Moennig's.
Richard Weichold Cello c. 1900
Bihn Park is now playing this Richard Weichold cello — Dresden work from around 1900, deep red varnish, and craftsmanship precise enough that whoever built it was clearly being held to a high standard.
The Grande Dame of the cello world- Metta Watts
Metta "Billie" Watts spent decades alongside Orlando Cole shaping cellists, and she still walks into my shop with more energy than most players half her age.
Beautiful Nicolo Gagliano 1765
Drew Beckwith's 1765 Nicolo Gagliano is in the shop this week for gluings, cleaning, varnish restoration, and a new bridge — one of the finest examples of the Neapolitan school I've had on the bench.
My Mentor
Bill Moennig took me on as his last apprentice, and for sixteen years he was exactly what a mentor should be — tough, demanding, and never once easy on me.
Jesus Morales rediscovering his lovely Bassot cello
Jesus Morales came in with a Bassot cello that needed work, and by the time he was tearing into the Brahms E minor sonata, the look on his face told me everything I needed to know.
1796 Bassot Cello
The Bassot came in with a collapsed top, a detached bass bar, and a neck reset that someone had attempted twice before getting it wrong both times.
Major repairs to a Vavra cello of Prague
This Vavra cello from Prague came in needing a soundpost patch in the back, which means the top comes off first, then the bass bar, before we even get to the back.
Fiddles and Cake: MICHAEL PURCELL - Violin Restoration and Repair in Philadelphia
Last Tuesday I pulled a 1921 Juzek out of a case packed with old rosin dust and someone's birthday napkin, and here we are.