Yesterday’s article was very positively received, and for good reason: it demonstrated that it’s possible to have fun building a fine stringed instrument…even if the resultant instrument doesn’t look all that fine. 
This article – actually a wonderfully extensive series of articles – was briefly mentioned in the introduction to yesterday’s linked posting, and I wanted to share it as well. For those of you who have been bitten HARD by the lutherie bug and have moved far beyond the tinkerer stage into serious instrument building, this is for you. Even if you have no intentions of building your own exquisite cello, it makes for fascinating reading.
If you were to assign a dollar value to the hours it takes to build a nice instrument, you’d quickly decide that finished versions are relatively inexpensive to buy. This is due to many factors, such as well-trained (and superbly-skilled) craftsmen, dedicated workshops, and exchange rates (in some cases), among other things. But for some exceedingly creative musicians, the thrill of playing an instrument that they themselves made is so far beyond playing a purchased instrument that words just can’t capture the feeling. You know who you are. 
Here at PTM, we’ve discussed homebuilt instruments ranging from gas can banjos to hand-made marimbas, and it’s all good. For those cellists among us who want to create their next instrument with their own loving hands…this one’s for you. Enjoy!
All the best,
Mark
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Tags: beautiful, cello, DIY, do it yourself, fine, homebuilt, homemade, make your own, stringed instrument
Gear, Strings | Mark November 6, 2009 | 
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As you all probably know by now, our goal at PartTimeMusician.com is to make it the best resource available to PTMs everywhere. We don’t do it for the vast wealth that running a website for part-time musicians provides – okay, stop laughing out there! – but we do hope to at least cover the expenses associated with providing fun and useful content for the PTM family. To help with this, we accept advertisers…but we even do that a bit differently than most sites.
We consider any advice we might offer as among family, and just as we wouldn’t want to recommend a bad mechanic to our dear Uncle Bob, we don’t want to steer you wrong, either. With that in mind, we only accept advertisements from people and companies with whom we’ve had, and continue to have, good dealings. Centsible Sounds is a great example.
A couple of years ago, we were looking for a new violin to upgrade one of our existing ones, and someone referred me to Centsible Sounds. I had just come off of a bad experience with a local shop, and I was willing to look at other options.
After talking with the good folks at Centsible Sounds, they had a pretty good idea of the instrument we wanted. They shipped us two very nice violins for evaluation – violins that outshone the numerous others we had evaluated from local shops. Their pricing was extremely attractive, and they seemed knowledgeable and genuinely interested in getting us the right instrument for us.
I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the entire operation. After selecting the better of the two violins, we returned the other and completed our purchase. Everything went smoothly from start to finish, and to this day we couldn’t be happier with our choice. We hope to buy a new viola soon, and when we do, Centsible Sounds will be our first (and very likely our last!) stop.
Vince and Marie Roberts own and operate Centsible Sounds, and they are a pleasure to deal with. They provide a level of service a “big box” instrument vendor can’t, with prices and quality that would embarrass your local instrument shop. For fine stringed instruments, they are your “local shop at a distance”. Check them out!
All of the advertisers in the right sidebar are your advertisers, so please let us know what you think…and please support them when you can. After all, many of them are PTMs, too. 
Keep playing,
Mark
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Tags: advertiser, buy violin, Centsible Sounds, local, shop, stringed instrument, Strings
General, Guitar, Percussion, Strings, Woodwinds | Mark July 1, 2009 |
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This article by Dr. Maoshing Ni was forwarded to me by Chicago fiddler Chris Marshall (thanks, Chris!). While it mentions many things you can do to maintain or improve your brain functions, the excerpt below is sure to catch your eye as it did Chris’s and mine.
“Many people marvel that Asian children seem so intelligent. It could be because they use their fingers more frequently. They eat with chopsticks and at one time, they used to compute with an abacus in school. In fact, some studies have been done with children who use an abacus daily, and findings show that engaging the fingers stimulates nerve endings that go directly to the brain, increasing circulation. Take advantage of this by practicing motor activities that use your fingertips, like crocheting, knitting, and other arts and crafts where you are manipulating small parts. Try playing the piano or a stringed instrument.”
Somewhat depressingly, Dr. Mao indicates that the human brain starts to decline at a mere 30 years of age. The good news? There are ways to stay sharp, and playing music is one of them…so play on!
All the best,
Mark
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