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I chose the 1686 Stradivarius Goddard pattern. Which is wider than most. I did this because I wanted to produce an instrument with a warmer tone, preferably to play Arabic style violin on. It should be said that I am not a violinist, and have very limited abilities for technique and sound production. It should also be noted that the strings used at cheap Chinese strings. Proper strings should result in a better sound as well as a real violinist.
Here goes my story. Of how I entered luthiery (making and repairing musical instruments). It all started in my grandfather's workshop. I would poke around his shop because the place was cool. There were lots of tools, and wood in there and I also found my first playboy magazine in his shop! So one day he showed me how to clamp a piece of wood in a vice and how to cut it with a saw. At 5 or 6 years old, this blew my mind. I came up with plans to make a robot (a dream not yet realized!) and I couldn't stop fantasizing about all the possibilities. Then in Junior high school we had shop class, so there was the bandsaw, sanding machine, drill press, and that blew me away even more. I made my mother a wooden cross, and an ashtray. Not long after I discovered music. I learned how to play guitar, and then I realized I wanted to make one. But to make a guitar means you have to have a lot of your own tools, and the skills to build one. Fast forward to when I was 18 years old. I would get the guitar making magazines, and I'd look at the tools and how expensive they were, and all the beautiful woods. But again, everything was so expensive, there was no way to do this on my own. A few years later I found a guitar maker living in upstate, NY. I asked him if he would teach me guitar making, he said no. He died a year later. I asked another guitar maker, HE died a year later! Then I met a violin maker, asked him if he would teach me, and without him knowing it, he saved his life and agreed to teach me! So I started with violins, then sonehow started making ouds because I started to play oud after traveling to the Middle-East and being inspired by the haunting tone of the oud. But still, never made a guitar. So a life long dream has begun to be fulfilled! Here the wood for the back was joined, the sides bent, and I will begin making the mould. Here is what Amos wrote: "I just got a chance to play these two ouds after they were both repaired by John Vergara at his shop, Lord of The Strings, in Beacon, NY. The oud on the left is Ibrahim Sukar (Syria) and on the left is Haider (also Syria). John's repairs are solid, clean and resolved the issues that needed to be addressed exactly as I needed them to be. John was highly professional, punctual, explained everything he was doing, itemized each repair clearly in a simple invoice and even threw in some extras to make sure the repairs yielded the desired result before I brought the ouds back to Maine. Both of these instruments had serious issues that rendered one of them completely unplayable and the other fairly limited. They are both performance-ready now and the final amount I paid was extremely reasonable. I highly recommend John to anyone in need of stringed instrument repairs of any kind, not only ouds. Guitars, violins, violas, the list is a long one. Please visit his website at www.johnvergaramusic.com for more information. So glad to have these ouds back at home."  |
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