In a quiet part of Chendamangalam near Kochi in Kerala, there is a tiny, barely 100 square feet workshop. Its longest wall is lined with instruments and violins in various stages of production. The work table is littered with scales, tapes, and other measuring instruments, plus brass planers of several sizes, a container of glue, and a file of violin measurement posters. On the floor are pieces of wood that Vinay Murali, his father Murali Eddy, and younger brother Vijay, handcraft into violins.
The smallness of the place is misleading, the price of violin made here is Rs 1.5 lakh and more. Each of these has found musicians across India. For example, Kumaresh and Edapally Ajith of the violinist duo Ganesh-Kumaresh use violins made by the Kumar family. All instruments are made using mostly natural materials including glue and varnish. The strings and tailpiece are the only parts he sources from elsewhere.
Grooming
Although the family started making these high-end violins seven years ago, Vinay has been making and repairing violins and guitars since the early 1980s. “A friend and I learned to play the violin and guitar, respectively, in the 1980s. One day, he gave me his violin to be repaired and thus began my tryst with the violin. Over the years, one violin led me to the next and the next…” says Murali.
They are a musical family, he says. Vinay and Vijay have formally learned to play the violin. Murali, his father, who learned guitar at Cochin Arts and Communication (CAC), is also a self-taught violinist.
Murli with Vinay and Vijay | Photo Credit: Tulsi Kakkat
“It helps if you know how to play the violin, just like a car mechanic knows how to drive,” said Vinay, strumming the violin.
When Murali started making violins, he made them using cheaper varieties of wood available locally. Today however, three types of seasoned wood are used to make violins – spruce, alpine maple and ebony. While spruce and alpine maple are imported from Germany, ebony is obtained locally as India and Sri Lanka are among the major exporters of ebony. Spruce is used for the soundboard and maple for the other parts. Ebony, a hard wood restricted to the finger-board and neck of the instrument because it is most prone to wear.
The wood is seasoned for at least 15 years and is done in one of two ways: it is dried naturally or it is dried in a temperature controlled environment. Since Vinay was once a carpenter, it is easy to understand the nuances of the instrument, he says.
critical moment
A turning point in the journey came in 2013 when Murali attended Violin Wise, a series of workshops organized by the Chennai-based Lalgudi Foundation. The two-week program was an opportunity for the Indian luthiers to work with one of the world’s leading violin makers – James Wimmer of America.
Murali was among those 14 participants. Wimmer, now in his 80s, has come almost every year since the last workshop in 2022. “Till last year there were four participants from India. Wimmer was tight-lipped about who could attend,” says Murali.
The workshops enhanced their knowledge and gave them access to techniques and resources. Vinay insists, “The violins we make are at par with those made in Europe.” Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu are two 17th-century Italian violin makers best known for the instruments they designed. “The difference between the two is the shape—the Guarneri is curvier than the Stradivarius. We make both, but we get more orders for the Stradivarius-shaped one.” Although the process is the same as it is in Europe, he says he faces bias.
A violin is customized based on whether the user is a Western classical violinist or a Carnatic musician. The former has four strings while the latter has five: some Carnatic musicians prefer to extend the neck of their violins as they sit on the ground. [for concerts] And the violin needs to be put on their feet when they play it.
“It’s ergonomic. The traditional violin gives them cervical and spinal problems, lengthening the neck doesn’t affect the tonal quality of the instrument,” says Murali. Vinay says, the weight of a violin should be between 450-475 grams.
Since these are based on order, there is no fixed number that they make at a given time. Each instrument takes 250-300 hours to make, “Sometimes we are working on five or six at once as each is in a different stage of making,” says Vinay.
The gum is natural, obtained from animal bones and skin and the varnish, which is tree sap cooked in vegetable oil, is prepared by Vinay at home. Synthetic glue or varnish will damage the wood, hardening it and making it difficult to service or repair. “Violins don’t need heavy-duty glue, just enough adhesive to hold the parts together. One advantage of natural glue is that it’s easy to take the instrument apart, nothing happens to the wood, ” they tell.
They also restore violins, which involves fixing broken violin parts using wood closest to the original. Vinay takes out a German-made 1927 violin that was brought in for repair, one of the few that has a label on it. “Usually they are unlabeled and a violin lasts three or four generations. But I think we have worked on ones that have been sent to us from across the country, which are about 200 years old.”
Their clientele is built around word of mouth promotion. Since the violins are high-end, retailing is not an option as these are also custom-made. “Anyone who wants to buy a musical instrument from a store is not looking for something that is so expensive or exclusive. More importantly, we don’t ‘manufacture’ in bulk…we can’t!” says Vinay.
He can be contacted on Instagram @fiddle_crafter_luthiers