# Luthier (French luth, "lute")

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/luthier
Also known as: 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.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/luthier