MY SPACE

A peek into lutherie workshops around the world

LUTHIER ERNST FUCHS

LOCATION Ravensburg, Germany

I’m originally from a small village in Baden- Württemberg, south-west Germany, and Ravensburg was the ideal place to set up a workshop. I trained at Mittenwald and served an apprenticeship in Munich before working for two years in Berlin. I found the city too big and decided to return to this area, where I’ve now worked for the past 35 years. I’m the only professional luthier in the county and there are plenty of music schools, orchestras and amateur musicians in the vicinity, so there’s never been a shortage of work for me, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. I spend most of my time restoring instruments, which has always held a special fascination for me.

The workshop is around 40 sq m and has a few south-facing windows, although I find artificial light just as useful for my work. My main workbench is the smaller one, to the left of the photo. I used to have an assistant to do much of the bow work, such as rehairing, but when he left to work in New York I decided to use that space myself rather than find a replacement. I keep most of my spare accessories such as bridges and bow hair on this side, while my tools and varnish materials are mostly hanging up around the bench on the right-hand side.

I’m very pleased to live in a country that takes its musical culture so seriously. My mother was a pianist and my father a percussionist; I grew up studying the violin and cello, and played in an amateur string quartet for many years, which I think convinced me to train as a violin maker in the first place. More recently, many people have been making enquiries about Baroque instruments, which I put down to the growth of interest in that period, and the presence of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra not too far away. It’s fascinating how trends in music have developed in the past few decades.

My small collection of miniature violins comes in useful when I want to demonstrate something to a customer. They come from various countries; the middle one was made in Mittenwald.

I’ve adapted this table to make it easier to work on an instrument from all sides. The cello is a Collin-Mézin model. My mother made the chair beside it, and its adjustable back allows me to work on different instruments more effectively.

Right Having objets d’art in the workshop adds interest for customers. The rabbit is by Reiner Schlecker from Ulm, and the violinist and cellist by Andy Williamson from Australia.

I’ve been working on this cello for approximately 20 years! The label says Testore but I think it was made in Bologna around 1700. The owner thought it irreparable and told me just to return it whenever it was finished.

This double bass belongs to a very fine musician named Dieter Ilg. Behind it is a still from the 1930 Laurel and Hardy film Below Zero. I like it because it appears that Oliver Hardy’s playing the bass left-handed (in fact the image was reversed).

With so many instruments in need of repair, the Covid pandemic has had very little effect on my work. The violin on my workbench needs a new bridge and pegs, as well as a soundpost.