violins

Harry Benson became the president of William Lewis & Sons when the company was under the ownership of Chicago Musical Instrument (CMI). Harry’s guiding principles resulted in the expansion of the violin line and the respect of fellow violin makers such as Kurt Glaesel. Harry was also the one-time boss of another industry veteran and strong supporter of this archive collection, Robert S.

George Borun began his luthier endeavors as a hobby and soon found himself enthralled with the angles, the woods and the tools of the trade. He embarked on a mission to assemble the blueprints and patterns of the world’s finest string instruments and sought to solve the mystery of their uniqueness. Along the way he created an impressive collection of instruments he made by hand and topped off his belief in giving music back to music makers by then donating his instruments to students of all levels.  

Ellen Cavanaugh brought her innovative business ideas and skillful communication and marketing concepts to expand the historic brands that make up the Super-Sensitive Musical String Company. Formed in the 1930s and established on the Red Label line of strings, Super-Sensitive was purchased by Ellen’s husband in 1967 and the company moved from Chicago to Florida to focus on new markets and a new product line. Ellen played a key role in the company’s expansion into other accessories and musical products.
 

John Cavanaugh and his father bought the Super-Sensitive Musical String Company in 1967 and worked long and hard to bring the products into new and international markets. John created the research and development department for the company, designing new products such as the Old Fiddler line. John also sought to improve the strings available for cellos and basses and introduced the now renowned Supreme string line.  

Kurt Glaesel was born into a violin-making family, which dates back to 1720, but it was Kurt who made his family name nationally known. After a noted 20 year career with Heinrich Roth, Kurt established Glaesel String Instrument Service, Inc. in 1973. The company was soon sold to Selmer, where Kurt remained making his handcrafted instruments for 15 additional years. During that time, Selmer marketed the string instrument line with a strong, worldwide campaign that featured Kurt’s likeness on each ad and brochure.  

George Gruhn is without question one of the top experts of vintage guitars on the planet! George collected guitars before opening the world renowned Gruhn Guitar Shop in Nashville, TN in the early 1970s. Since that time he has authored several historical reference guides and thousands of articles on his vast collection and knowledge including “Acoustic Guitars & Other Fretted Instruments: A Photographic History” published in 1993.  

 Richard Janda specialized in repairing stringed instruments.  It was also something he enjoyed very much.  During World War II he was trained to repair the band instruments for the U.S.

Lothar Meisel is the ninth generation of violinmakers in his family, going back to 1660 in Klingenthal, Germany. He recalls with a smile the days as a young boy hiding under his grandfather's work bench and even in later years Lothar could recall the lay out of his grandfather's workshop. His grandfather was the designer of the Meisel violin, a model Lothar proudly has made throughout his long career as craftsmen. In 1957, Lothar and his father started a business in America where they worked side by side until his father's passing in 1995.

 Joseph Rashid studied the art of violin-making like few others.  His goal was not to mass produce the instrument or even to sell them, but rather to hand-make the instruments based on scientific evidence.  When he could not locate data on frequency measurements, he conducted his own studies to produce the needed data.  These studies helped him create a violin with a higher quality of sound and he happily shared his finding with other luthiers.  The results of many of his studies

Ned Steinberger is known around the world for his innovative instrument designs. His guitars and basses created without the traditional headstock gained wide popularity in the 1980s rock era and have come to be known simply as Steinbergers. When he formed NS Designs in 1990, Ned focused on electric classical instruments such as the double bass, bass cello, cello, viola and violin. Ned’s passion for making musical instruments is clear in the sound of each of his products. He remains one of the great innovators of the music products industry.