Maker: The Art of Terry Borman

[@russellgallman7566]

I'm a technician in the piano world. Your level of work is what I refer to as "artisan technician." My level is pre-artisian. I have decent skill sets, but I don't enjoy or thrive on the stress the artisan techs live on. Plus I got into at age 45; so, many doors were closed. Regardless, I've enjoyed and appreciate the lane I ride in. Enjoyed your your video.

[@williamderosa8947]

I remember one of my closet and best friends at least 30 yrs ago bringing home one of Terry Bormann fiddles. That was Jimmy Lin. Nobody knew who Terry was then. We all had Strads , Del Gesu and I myself one of the great Montagnana cellos. Jimmy was adamant what a great maker Terry Borman was. He did have a very good point ... the violin sounded very good and at the price point it was a bargain next to the instruments of Sam Zygmuntowicz. Also a amazing maker , if memory serves Jimmy had a couple of those as well along with Issac Stern and several very famous violinist as well as David Finkel ... my point being there are many great makers out there. Lynn Harrell played a cello by Chris Dungey that he adored. Yo Yo Ma plays a cello by very talented makers and old friends Peter and Wendy Moes. Eric Benning in Studio City makes some great instruments and I have played several of his cellos. Christophe Landon another very talented guy. This is all great news for the upcoming musician as there is no shortage of great instruments to be had. Congrats to Terry Borman a great maker as well.

[@jpschmidt44]

Beautiful video. Very inspiring. Thanks.

[@laurencelance586]

What fun it would be to sit with this genius and just watch, and listen.

[@johan3276]

Great Valor Video Mister Borman!

[@patriciajrs46]

US luthier with international reknown? Very cool. Good deal.

[@laurencelebeustclair6844]

Laurence Lance you have the sense what is required just sit look ,listen and learn wish more people would just do that the world would be a wiser place

[@lzdmglg202612]

Terry, if you haven't already, look at the scientific research by Texas A&M that shows, while no other violin maker treated his fiddles with an insecticide, Stradivari did. Perhaps, some say, it could be part of the reason a Strad sounds marvelous. The A&M video is here on KZbin.

[@clawhammer704]

The scroll is the hardest part of the violin to build for me. I noticed that he uses a very thin bridge.

[@joshuam2154]

What is that case brand he closes and snaps with leather handle????

[@patriciajrs46]

His violin case.

[@Snowy0123]

Am I correct in assuming that violin builders use more basic tools compared to a guitar builder. I play guitar but always wanted to build one but the specialized tools are too expensive.

[@okiwatashi2349]

There’s special tools for both but the majority are normal woodworking tools, planes and chisels.

[@liomatsu1931]

You should watch famous violin makers making violin. It’s very interesting and also complex. I don’t think guitar is as difficult to make as a violin. By the way most of the great contemporary violins crafted take around a month and half to 2 months to craft.

[@nickyork8901]

I have tried both - and personally I found making a classical guitar slightly (but only slightly) easier than making a violin, except in the final stage where getting the action exactly right on a guitar is very tricky indeed. Equally, setting the neck on a violin is where everything can go wrong. Varnishing a guitar is much easier than the same process for a violin, for lots of reasons, and doing the scroll and pegs is much harder than a guitar neck and head. The tools and techniques (eg. struts, bass bar, bending the ribs, joining the front) are sometimes quite similar, except on doing the rosette for a guitar which is quite specialised in itself. Final set up on a violin is difficult eg. bridge, soundpost, adjusting the fingerboard and nut. In terms of the costs of tools, some of them you can make yourself to reduce costs (eg. bending iron, closing clamps, lining clamps, thicknessing calipers, miniature planes).

[@patriciajrs46]

Many people make their own tools.

[@rjlchristie]

7:11 "beginning of a long slow decline" - what the hell does that even mean? Does it mean that it's really good and unlikely to be surpassed? Does it mean, in a similar vein, that no matter how good the piece happened to be then as a maker there is no hope of Sutton ever improving? i.e. that it proves he is talent-less. Or did he hear his teacher or relate what was said mistakenly and the teacher said that it's the beginning of a long slow INcline? - i.e. that it shows promise for a future career.

[@FutureJouster]

It can be taken a few ways. The first that came to me was that its the decline of the blind super excited 'i did a thing!' reaction to finishing. The more you make and learn, the less you have that reaction because you're always striving for better and always learning more so you keep seeing more things to improve. Or your taste changes or refines, so there's yet again another goal to chase

[@FutureJouster]

Or its the beginning of the long slow decline into the 'madness' that is the obsessiveness or all consuming nature or spending a lifetime making haha I think many of us have a touch of that madness

[@patriciajrs46]

That comment, I think was made about himself. He said the teacher said that to him in assessing the instrument this luthier made. Borman goes on to say it challenged him to always work toward better, if at all possible.

[@ReiMonCoH]

It’s very boring work. So true. The bane of mastery is the inherent monotony

[@PKVarianceArts]

haf found borman

[@violinhunter2]

The sound that comes out of a violin is 70% player and 30% fiddle. All the micro adjustments to the neck of the fiddle that Borman talks about (toward the end of the video at 23:01) is pure nonsense. Stradivari and his pals never worried about such things. A violin can sound different due to variations in temperature and humidity but SO WHAT? Ask any touring concert violinist. Do they bring a luthier (a violin doctor) with them wherever they go? You can tinker with the strings and the bridge and the soundpost if you like but the violinist will ultimately make it sound the way he wants. If the violinist cannot do that, he should take up accounting or engineering.

[@violinhunter2]

Borman is a good builder. He should build the violin and leave well enough alone - let someone else make any "adjustments" that might be needed (which should be ZERO if the fiddle is well-built) I am 99% certain that no builders from 1600 - 1800 ever adjusted their own violins. Leave that kind of work to the repairman.

[@Cypherdude1]

21:47 No, he's talking about the wood instrument's absorption of moisture. All stringed wood instruments will absorb moisture. The effect he's talking about on the violin is the same on a guitar. *Suppose you move a violin and a guitar from a dry 30% humidity climate to a moist 80% humidity coast. Both instruments will absorb moisture and swell up. Both fretboards will move up/forward and the strings will move farther away. Both instruments will be harder to play.* With a guitar, it is easy to adjust with a truss rod. I don't know how you adjust a violin. The only way I can think of is to shave the bottom of the bridge. BTW, the opposite will happen if you move a violin or guitar from a moist climate to a dry climate: The fretboard will move down/back and the strings will come closer. Again, there is a simple adjustment available for the guitar. How you adjust a violin I don't know. Violins don't have truss rods. 3:06 Terry is slaving on that violin neck. It's taking him days to finish it. I just saw a Chinese made CNC machine complete a violin neck in 10 minutes. The whole thing probably takes 60 minutes from beginning to end. *See KZbin video: "CNC violin making machine, CNC router for violin instrument" 5E0x-T4d5Rc.* Perhaps the days of buying expensive handmade instruments are coming to a close. In the future, I suspect violin luthiers will only need to adjust the sound by sanding the underside of the top. *See video: "Solving the Stradivarius Secret - William F. "Jack" Fry and Rose Mary Harbison" c8-rOvWeV8k.* Finally, there is a material which is immune to moisture: carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is being used more and more with stringed instruments. It's more expensive than wood, but better for traveling around and not having to adjust the instrument. *See video: "CARBON FIBER vs WOOD - Guitar Tone Comparison!" MJ6iyWSEzIs.* and *"Comparison wooden violin vs carbon fiber violin" MsW_BUIrZUg.*

[@artnouveau4332]

@@violinhunter2 it's his prerogative to make the adjustments on any instruments he builds. Any person who repairs instruments doesn't know the particularities of the instrument. I can appreciate his attention to the details.