Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Luthier & Bow Maker Tim Stephenson

I've known Tim for ten years. He worked on my bass and rehaired my bow throughout my time at BYU, and I still bring him my bow to rehair when I'm I visiting Utah from out of state. 

While I was working as the string instrument tech in the BYU Instrument office beginning in 2004, we took many of the instruments to Tim for more serious repairs--at the time, the most "intense" work I did was glueing open seams. Anyway, I was very interested in Tim's work and methods and asked him lots of questions whenever I visited his shop. 

Now, so many years later as I'm getting into violin making myself, I was able to reconnect with Tim during my last visit to Salt Lake City in March. We had a great time talking shop and he showed me a few of his techniques. I tried out a few finger plans and some gouging on Tim's bench, roughing out my practice viola plate with his long-handled chisel and bench dogs that fit the curves of the viola as pictured. I like how he sets his plates in a cradle rather than just on the bench. It raises the height of your working surface to be more level with your elbow. 

I absolutely recommend Tim. He's even rehaired Joshua Bell's violin bow, for crying out loud. 



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