Springs man aims to make violins sing

Ron Jones says he wants to know the violin from the inside out and use his skill to transform junk into treasure.

A good repairman can take a cheap violin and, by reshaping parts of the instrument, make it sound as good as an instrument thousands of dollars more expensive.

“I want to take a bad violin and make it sound really good,” he said. “I want to take something that’s not useful and make it into something that’s useful.”

So the 59-year-old, who has been playing fiddle since he was 25, recently joined a handful of people from around the region in Juan Mijares’ violin shop in downtown Colorado Springs to take his first steps toward becoming a luthier, a maker of stringed instruments.

“There’s just something special about building (an instrument) yourself, even if it doesn’t make sense,” Mijares said. “If you figure out the hours it takes to put into building your first instrument, it’s not logical. It makes more sense to buy one from China — but it’s not as satisfying as making one from scratch.”

Mijares started the monthly class five years ago when the Black Rose Acoustic Society wanted to offer a lutherie class as a workshop.

The class was also inspired by Mijares’ own background: When he started to make his first guitar at age 15, all the instrumentmakers he approached for advice were too busy, and he had to figure out how to make the instrument by himself.

It worked out in his case; Mijares still plays the guitar he made. But he remembers being frustrated, and wants others to have a guide if they want the help.

Jones and his fellow students are part of a growing national interest in lutherie, teachers and craftsmen say. From a handful of guitar luthiers in the 1970s, the number has increased exponentially, said Nathan Fisher, who owns a repair shop in the Springs and makes guitars as a hobby. In fact, today there are luthiers who specialize in making ukuleles, mandolins, dulcimers and all variety of guitars.

Interest in lutherie classes has shot up as well, said Susan Galloup, an administrator at the Galloup School of Lutherie in Michigan, and the number of “microbuilders” featured or advertising in guitar and lutherie magazines has increased dramatically since the 1970s.

“There’s a lot more music, a lot more people playing and a lot more people that couldn’t find what they wanted out of a mass-produced guitar,” Galloup said. “People wanted to take their art to a whole new level.”

Elevating their art is a common goal of Mijares’ students. Jones wants to resurrect an old violin with a rutted fingerboard, which he smoothed down with Mijares’ help.

Jones has been collecting wood and tools to make his own violin since he started playing, and started making his first violin five years ago. He is almost halfway finished with it now, and looking forward to the finished product.

“I think I’ve always been interested” in lutherie, he said. “It’s been in my head ever since I started.”

Now he just has to use his hands to translate the picture in his head to a finished work of art.