by Kevan van Herd
Herold Mueller was born in Poland, Feb. 19th, 1931.He worked as a maintenance supervisor for Crown Zellerbach from 1954 to 1991 (37 years) and started making violins, violas and cellos about 10 years before his retirement. His first efforts ended up in the garbage, but being a perfectionist by nature, he has developed his skill to a point where the instruments he now makes are wonderful to hear and to play. The violins now have names such as Nightingale, Brown Sugar and Cinderella and their tone and appearances are outstanding and distinctive indeed.
At this time he has 12 violins on hand that were made over the past years, and they are priced from $1,200.00 to $8,000.00 and any talented violinist will verify that they are underpriced.
He has 8 cellos on hand, and doesn’t plan on making any more at this time as they take about a year to complete. Those on hand are priced at $1,500.00 to $9,000.00.
The violas are not in such great demand and he has 4 on hand priced from $800.00 to $4,000.00. One viola in particular was an experiment in which the neck was placed slightly to the right on the body, which permits the hand to move into 6th, 7th and 8th positions more easily. The tone of this viola is wonderful to hear since moving the neck in that manner made a change in the sound box giving the viola a wonderful tone with outstanding volume. No other violas are made in this manner so it is “One of a kind”. Placing the neck to one side also permits easier playing in an orchestra.
It is wonderful how Herold’s fame as a violin maker is growing. His violins are played by artists in the Kelowna symphony, Edmonton Symphony and Dawson Creek Symphony, just to mention a few. Each artist who has bought an instrument from Herold is happy with the tone and ease of playing and all report that the tone of their instrument improves with time.
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