What does luthier mean in music?

The instrument

Luthier

French luth, "lute" · Also: violin maker, violin shop

A luthier is a maker and repairer of stringed instruments, and the person to see for anything involving the bridge, soundpost, pegs, seams, or setup.

The line between owner maintenance and luthier work is clear and worth respecting: strings, rosin, and cleaning are yours; the bridge, the soundpost, the pegs, open seams, cracks, and the fingerboard are not. A soundpost that has fallen must not be poked at, the instrument should go in a case, unstrung enough to release tension, and to a shop.

A setup, the collective adjustment of bridge, soundpost, pegs, nut, and string height, makes a larger difference to how an instrument plays than most upgrades do, and a mediocre instrument well set up outplays a better one badly set up.

Bow rehairing is a related specialism; hair loses its grip over months of playing regardless of how much of it remains, and a bow that will not hold rosin usually needs hair rather than more rosin.

Bridge: The bridge is the shaped piece of maple standing under the strings that transmits their vibration into the body of the instrument, and it is held in place by string tension alone.
Sound post: The sound post is a small wooden dowel wedged inside a string instrument between the top and back, transmitting vibration and holding the body under string tension.
Rosin: Rosin is the hardened tree resin applied to bow hair to create the friction that makes a string speak; without it the bow slides silently across the string.
Instrument sizes: String instruments are made in fractional sizes, 1/16 through 4/4 for violin and cello, chosen by the player’s arm length and hand span rather than by age, and the fractions do not describe physical proportions.

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All 106 terms

Related terms

Bridge

The bridge is the shaped piece of maple standing under the strings that transmits their vibration into the body of the instrument, and it is held in place by string tension alone.

Sound post

The sound post is a small wooden dowel wedged inside a string instrument between the top and back, transmitting vibration and holding the body under string tension.

Rosin

Rosin is the hardened tree resin applied to bow hair to create the friction that makes a string speak; without it the bow slides silently across the string.

Instrument sizes

String instruments are made in fractional sizes, 1/16 through 4/4 for violin and cello, chosen by the player’s arm length and hand span rather than by age, and the fractions do not describe physical proportions.