Michal Bittner
Born in Cheb, Michal studied in the Cheb Violin Making School, a public institution in the Czech Republic located in Schönbach, a town that was renamed “Luby” in 1946. An Imperial-Royal Music School, which is over a hundred years old (inception on August 1, 1873), is the only surviving violin-making school in the Czech Republic, and one of five in all of Europe. Schönbach is a town rich in the tradition of violin-making dating back to the sixteenth century.
Michal studied the art of violin making under master violin makers Mr Karel Zadražil and Mr Emil Lupač and he has shown remarkable skills in the art of string instruments.
New violins
Michal concentrated on the making of violins, violas and violoncellos and his main source of inspiration comes from ancient Italian makers; Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. For his instruments, he carefully chooses aged wood, ten years at a minimum, from Bosnia and Italy. The process of making the instrument is a slow process and as a passionate violin maker who is focused in quality, he will ensure the wood are properly age before working on it so his instruments would not crack.
Each instrument is a unique, handcrafted piece, characterized with a balanced timbre, high degree of modulation and resonance. Michal’s instruments emphasize his personal style which make his violins unique and exclusive. Every part of the violin is carefully crafted to perfection.
Michal delicately coats these instruments with his own spirit based varnish. A lot of effort is being paid to the arching and varnish which are the key factor to a great sound. He build instruments that will age beautifully both tonally and visually. Each intricately handcrafted violins is capable of intricate tones.
Michal’s instruments are tuned, tested, and adjusted to ensure optimum performance. Each instrument has its own certificate and guarantee.
Repair
Besides the making of instruments, Michal is dedicated to the restoration of violins, violas and violoncellos. Michal had the chance to meet several well-known violin makers which not only gave him the opportunity to learn special restoration techniques to handle antique instruments but also develop a solid understanding of violin acoustics and the construction of modern instruments. These has helped him to carry out restoration of the highest level for antique and more recently built instruments.
Basic services are:- installation of strings
- installation of bridge
- installation of pegs
- installation of fingerboard
- installation of bassbar
- installation of sound post
- lower bridge
- tonal adjustment
- planning of fingerboard
- raising of fingerboard
- regluing of fingerboard
- neck corrections
- colouring and retouching of varnish
- cleaning / polishing of instruments
Bows
- installation of leather thumb grip
- installation of silver winding
- replacement of pearl slide
- installation of pearl eye
- re-hairing
- replacement of bow tip
- cleaning