WCCO Interview With Luthier Ken Amundson Of Amundson Violin

Bill Hudson: Whether in the hands of a country fiddler or a concert violinist, the instrument they play is pretty much the same, but for many of the nation's top musicians there's only one man they trust for their violin work. I got the chance to meet him in today's finding Minnesota, check it out.
Bill Hudson: In a second story shop, perched atop a corner pharmacy, the faint sounds of a fiddle rise above the roar of traffic. When Ken Amundson isn't practicing fiddle, he's repairing them. It's a skill he picked up from his father, who spent his lifetime as a luthier.
Ken Amundson: Every time you make a part, there's different measurements, different wood age that you use, according to how old the instrument is, and, that is an adventure, and it's never boring, never, ever boring.
Bill Hudson: Years of experience are etched on his face and his skilled hands show with each scrape of the wood. Ken's worked on instruments of some of the most well-known violinists and fiddlers, from Dan Taminsky to Alison Krauss.
Ken Amundson: Ricky Skaggs has just been a great customer-friend. The Dutton Family from Branson, Missouri, through them I've done work for a lot of people. Kenny Chesney's fiddler, Nick Hoffman.
Bill Hudson: Ken has even built violins over the years, bows, this is a block of wood that will soon be carved out into a violin neck. But he says his real passion, his real love, is to take a badly damaged instrument, and nurse it back to life.
Ken Amundson: This was a piece that broke here, there was 2 pieces over here, 1 piece over here.
Bill Hudson: Hard to believe, but this violin was crushed by a pickup truck. Piece by piece Ken brought it back from disaster.
Ken Amundson: You can get it too thin, and it'll sound hollow like an echo chamber.
Bill Hudson: Fortunately the instruments he builds or repairs, won't hang in the showroom until the sound is sweet and mellow. It's a promise to customers, from rank amateur, to Opry star.
Bill Hudson: I should also tell you that Ken does free appraisals of violins, he says he wants to do that so that folks can really appreciate the value of what they're playing, or maybe passing down to a child, grandchild, somebody.
Female Anchor: So I get the impression people around the country send their violins to him...
Bill Hudson: Exactly.
Female Anchor: ...they know that he's got that expertise.
Bill Hudson: He just does such wonderful work, and his father did as well, and he learned it from his dad, and he practices the craft today, he just does a wonderful job.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Interview
• luthier
• Ken Amundson
• Amundson Violin
• violin repair
• violin restoration
• violin appraisal
• Nick Hoffman
• The Dutton Family