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I currently work out of a purpose-built workshop in the scenic seaside village of Kommetjie. I offer musicians the full spectrum of services, including:
- guiding a beginner musician in selecting a first instrument
- servicing instruments
- helping musicians have an instrument perform optimally
- repairing damaged instruments
- restoring old or antique instruments
- guiding a musician through the complexities of designing and building their own instrument and
- custom-building an instrument for a discerning musician or collector.
I have made and repaired guitars and mandolins in South Africa since 1975, specialising in carved top & back ‘f-hole’ instruments for jazz players. The bulk of my work until 1989 was in the area of set-up and basic repair. In 1989 I moved to the UK where I stayed to further hone my lutherie skills until returning to Cape Town in January 2004.
Instruments made and repaired in my workshop are not limited to standard instruments or designs: I enjoy the challenge of the unusual. For example, I was a co-founder of Bridge Musical Instruments of Sleaford and was principal designer of a range of electric violins, celli & double-basses with hollow carbon graphite, kevlar & epoxy Resin bodies of unusual ergonomic shapes (as can be seen in the Hindersine rosin advertisements in the Strad magazine and my website). I have also made Bowl Lyres, David’s Lyres, hurdy-gurdies and other instruments requested by musicians that don’t conform to any traditional or standard description other than being a portable stringed musical instrument.
I generally work alone without assistants or apprentices and pride myself in the manufacture and maintenance of top-quality, functional musical tools used by working musicians.
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