My job: Heart fully tuned to the strings

Phil Whitehead says every violin has its own story. Photo / Graeme Sedal

MY JOB
Name: Phil Whitehead.
Occupation: Luthier (violin maker and restorer).
Age: 37.
Working hours: Average 50 hours per week.
Employer: Self-employed.
Pay scale: An apprentice can expect to start on minimum wage, although has heard of apprentices in other countries paying a fee to the master, just for the opportunity to work alongside them and learn.
Qualifications: Completed six-year apprenticeship in 2002.

Describe your job.

I'm a violin restorer and maker, although I can fix guitars. The job is servicing, repairing, restoring and making the violin family of string instruments. The family includes violins, violas, double basses and cellos.

Your background?

I often joke that I have been a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. I was those things and in that order but they were part-time jobs while I was studying.

When I was 17, I was ready to leave school but I didn't know what to do. My grandfather died and I inherited his nice old Irish fiddle which was smashed. My father and I went to a repairer in Auckland. When I walked into that workshop and I saw what was going on, that's when I finally had an idea about what I wanted to do.

To become a violin restorer you need a background in woodwork. I was a cabinetmaker. That is important to get the skills using the different tools and the knowledge of wood and how to work on wood. You can then do a six-year apprenticeship under a master violin master/restorer. I was lucky enough to find someone in Auckland willing to take me on as an apprentice. The only other option is to fly yourself to Europe or America and enrol in a violin-making school.

What skills does the job require?

You need steady hands, sharp eyes, sharp tools and you need to plan carefully what you are going to do. There is no room for error. You have to have woodworking, violin making and restoring skills ... and you have to be a player.

Who are your customers?

I have customers from all over New Zealand - beginners, university students and professionals in the philharmonic orchestra. My favourite is a lady who turned 70 this year and wanted to learn how to play the violin. She came to me and I sold her a violin and pointed her towards a teacher. I have kept in touch with her and the teacher and she is doing well and learning fast.

You are never too old to learn to play the violin.

Why is the job important?

I am conserving old and antique stringed instruments. I have seen repairs and restorations done badly, people using the wrong glue and the wrong varnishes and destroying the authenticity of a 300-year-old instrument. As a restorer, you don't want to be altering anything. The instrument is probably older than you and it will probably outlive you.

Players need to have a specialist to get the best tone out of their violin. A concert violinist who does solo work will need something different to somebody playing in a string quartet.

The best part of the job?

When you have a 200-year-old violin that has been sitting in someone's attic and it comes to you in 100 pieces, some eaten by woodworm or smashed by mishandling. You spend months piecing the violin together and you have a lovely 200-year-old violin that you put the strings on and play it for the first time. You hear it sing and that's a special moment; you don't know what it's going to sound like until you are finished.

Any interesting tales?

Every violin has its own story. I always ask questions about each instrument and make a record. I had a violin that had been in the family three generations. I asked the lady what she knew and it had belonged to her grandmother who lived in Germany during World War I. The grandmother had to hide the violin so it wouldn't be stolen or be confiscated. There is a movie called The Red Violin about a violin built in the 1700s and it goes from owner to another to another, and travels around the world. It is like an autobiography of the violin's life, I love that sort of story.

What do you want to be doing in five years?

I will be doing this job in 50 years.

Advice to someone interested in doing something similar?

You have to have a heart for it. You will spend your whole life studying it and you will only scratch the surface of what there is to know.

Can you make money?

Yes you can but you will never make as much as the guy down the road who programs computers, or a doctor. Good money comes later on after you have done years of study and people learn to trust you. Then people will come to you with their instruments.