Howery Violins

Welcome to Howery Violins.

Will Howery is a violinmaker and luthier working and living on Amelia Island. He also plays violin with the Amelia Island String Ensemble.

Hand crafted Violins and Violas direct from the maker that you can afford. Please look at the Rental/Purchase information!

My Violin Studio is at my residence. When you plan to visit, please make an appointment via The Shop Appointment Calendar. Thank You.

Will Howery, maker and restorer of fine violins, violas, and cellos, is also the creator of the Instrument Passport Project — a secure digital system for tracking instrument provenance, materials, and authenticity.
Learn more at https://InstrumentPassport.com

Will’s Blogs

Refurbished violin bow: new wrap, new thumb grip, new tip, new hair, and a fresh chamber

Refurbished violin bow: new wrap, new thumb grip, new tip, new hair, and a fresh chamber. #violinmaker #violin #bow #saintaugustine #savannah #saintmarys #jacksonville #ameliaisland

March 31, 2016
Bands saws are useful for more than violin making; they’re great for frozen bagels

Bands saws are useful for more than violin making; they’re great for frozen bagels…. #violinmaker #luthier #ameliaisland #jacksonville #saintmarys #savannah #saintaugustine #innovation

March 31, 2016
Our cat Oliver wants to join the Catgut Society. Everyone needs a bench helper

Our cat Oliver wants to join the Catgut Society. Everyone needs a bench helper… #violin #violinmaker #luthier #violinrepair #savannah #saintmarys #jacksonville #cats #catoftheday #pets

March 31, 2016
Put a 1/4 inch stick through my tire, went flat on the fishing bridge. Couldn’t get much better scenery

Put a 1/4 inch stick through my tire, went flat on the fishing bridge. Couldn’t get much better scenery 😀 #ameliaisland

March 31, 2016
Glueing Juliet’s top plate to the ribs

Glueing Juliet’s top plate to the ribs. #violinjuliet #violinmaker #luthier #violinist #violin #fernandinabeach #ameliaisland #jacksonville #saintmarys #savannah #saintaugustine

March 8, 2016
Our group at SCOR Raleigh

Our group at SCOR Raleigh! #violin #violinist #luthier #violinmaker

March 5, 2016
Violin #12 Betts Stradavari Model

Starting Violin #12 #violin #violinmaker #luthier #savannah #saintaugustine #saintmarys #jacksonville #fernandinabeach A photo posted by William Howery (@howeryviolins) on Feb 19, 2016 at 10:48am PST

February 19, 2016
Viola #1 Stradivari Cassavetti 1727

Viola #1 modeled from the Smithsonian Stradivari Cassavetti CAT Scan. Here we go! #viola #luthier #violinmaker #fernandinabeach #jacksonville #saintmarys #saintaugustine #savannah A photo posted by William Howery (@howeryviolins) on Feb 19, 2016 at 10:33am PST

February 19, 2016
Starting Violin #12

Starting Violin #12 #violin #violinmaker #luthier #savannah #saintaugustine #saintmarys #jacksonville #fernandinabeach

February 19, 2016
Viola #1 modeled from the Smithsonian Stradivari Cassavetti CAT Scan. Here we go

Viola #1 modeled from the Smithsonian Stradivari Cassavetti CAT Scan. Here we go! #viola #luthier #violinmaker #fernandinabeach #jacksonville #saintmarys #saintaugustine #savannah

February 19, 2016

Will’s Blog Posts:

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Violin Making: Setting the Bass Bar in Fiona

One of the mysterious steps in violin making is setting the bass bar. There is much discussion about the bar tension, placement, and thickness; all factors that affect the tone of the final instrument. Also all factors that can not be changed after the top is glued on. Today I shaped, glued, and trimmed the…

June 17, 2014
Violin making: Rib Assembly on Fiona

The first steps in making Violin #6, Fiona is building the violin rib assembly. To get started we set the corner gluing blocks to the form and then gluing the ribs. It all sounds pretty simple until, like most things, you get into the details. This first photo shows fitting the template over the form…

May 22, 2014
The Making Violin #6, Fiona Started today

Sound Testing #5 Edward With #5, Edward, playable in the white, I did a set of recordings for comparison to when Edward will have his varnish on. The recordings consist of a set of open string bowings; G, D, A, E and then a D major scale, and a three octave A major scale. The…

May 10, 2014
Edward #5 Setup to Play his first tunes

Today Edward, Violiln #5, was setup and played in the white. Edward was started in February of 2014. When I went to the Tuscon violin making workshop, Edward’s ribs were done and the plate edges were trimmed. Today setup was completed in the white, prior to varnishing. The reason I’m setting up Edward before varnishing…

May 9, 2014
Today I played a completed Howery Violin!!!

Finally after several years of study, 2 workshops, months of trail and error varnishing; I’ve finished Diana #4. She is varnished, setup, and played!!! Claude #3 will be completed later this week. I wasn’t content with the color and stripped him to do a second run, which came out very nice. I will say that…

April 5, 2014
Claude getting some color

After many false starts and learning many new things about color theory, oil painting, glazing, etc etc my violins are starting to look like violins.

April 5, 2014
Varnishing Beatrice

Finally at the stage of varnishing my early violins. The following photos show the varnishing stages of Beatrice my second violin. This photo shows Beatrice with two coats of cold rolled linseed oil. I actually use the food grade fax oil from the health food store. Also she has two clear coats of a oil…

November 17, 2013
Day Ten of Violin Making Workshop

Today is that point where we cut holes in the front of the violin plate which we just spent 4 days making contoured, inlaid, smoothed, and very thin. We are going to draw intricately curved lines, drill four holes in the middle of the plate, cut between the holes with a jewelers fret saw, and…

August 2, 2013
Day Eight of the Violin Making Workshop

Days 7&8 were spent shaping the outer curves of the top and bottom plates. With the purfling done, the height of the outer edges is set. The purfling line will be gouged down with a small gouge (approx 6mm) and then a larger gouge will carry the curve into the body of the plate a…

July 31, 2013
Day Three of the Violin Making Workshop

Three days of learning and building. We started by making a model template out of aluminum, transfering that to a plywood mold, making and gluing top, bottom, and corner blocks, thinning the side pieces, bending and gluing the side pieces to the mold,putting linings on the bottom side of the mold. Then…

July 26, 2013