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Making Matters: Stability of top and back plates

2024-02-20T09:02:00

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Christian Bayon reveals the results of several years’ experimentation with improving the stability of a violin’s top and back plates without compromising the sound quality

I have been making violins for 48 years, and was a restorer for 29 of them. I began restoring instruments in 1976 at Etienne Vatelot’s shop in Paris before setting up my own atelier in 1984 in Brittany, and then in Lisbon five years later. During these years I gained some experience in deformations to the violin body. The fall of the Berlin Wall brought a huge wave of migration into Western Europe…

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