Daniel Hoffman
New York born luthier Daniel Hoffman has been making world-class stringed instruments for more than 30 years. From the Florentine scrolled guitars and state-of-the-art Amplified Acoustics he designed and built with ITHACA STRINGED INSTRUMENTS in the 90's, to the intricately detailed replicas of Gasparo da Salo and Guarneri del Gesu
in the first decade of the new millenium, to his proportionally conceived works of today, Mr. Hoffman is clearly dedicated to the Art and Architecture of SOUND.
It was a November afternoon in 1994 when he chanced upon an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York City ...the Biddulph presentation of 25 Guarneri de Gesu masterpieces. "I walked in as an established guitarmaker and walked out, hours later, a complete novice...stunned that I had just been witness to the true craft of Lutherie as Art, completely human and gloriously organic ...having nothing at all in common with the mechanical perfection I had come to believe in."
And so he began his study, fueled by a fascination with the working methods of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Century Italian masters ...their design techniques using only a compass and a straightedge, the evidence of their construction sequences left mapped out in the toolmarks on the instruments, and, of course, the varnish. His appreciation of these delicate films of oleoresins and his ceaseless practice of their application has led him to be called upon by dealers, collectors, and museum curators as a consultant and varnish restorer. He often shares in workshops and private lessons his insights into historical varnishes and has presented his weeklong seminar titled ZEN IN THE ART OF VARNISHING at the Conservatorio de Musica Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga in Bilbao, Spain.
For Luthier Daniel Hoffman, the music is in the wood. The idea is to carve it out with a quick and sure hand and a fresh sharp edge on the blade. It's the skills, not the secrets, that count ...eye/hand coordination ...a certainty of the limitations as well as the possibilities in the woods ... how hard is too hard to push ...when it's dry and when it's not ...the real difference between what's still thick and what's too thin.
source: personal websiteservices
| makes | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| restores | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| address | 65 fir Tree Point Road - Rock Stream (NY) - United States |
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