BRING YOUR DESIGN TO LIFE
SIMPLE PROCESS | HIGH-QUALITY | CUSTOMIZE TO YOU | USA BASED
Having a shop-branded instrument brings great value to your brand and reputation.
With your own instrument you:
Build your reputation as a maker of fine instruments
Work with a local partner to promote and enhance your brand
Add value for your customers
Offer unique, proprietary designs to your clients that are unavailable anywhere else!
Increase margin
Create a legacy!
GET HIGH-QUALITY COMPONENTS FOR YOUR PROPRIETARY INSTRUMENT
Our V. Richelieu™ workshop can create a high-quality instrument parts at a reasonable price, 100% made in Vermont, USA. We use state-of-the art technology, masterful handwork, and the best materials to create instrument components that represent excellence and affordability. We have the technology and we have the know-how…we have made the investments so you do not need to.
Come to us with designs that you want to build. Our team will help you create the digital files and we will do the machining. You will have a high-margin product bearing your shop label.
PLATES
CAD
CAM
COUNTERFORMS
TESTING
MATERIALS
MACHINE WORK
SCROLLS
CAD
CAM
MATERIALS
MACHINE WORK
PEG BOX / PEG HOLES
NECK & HEEL
RIBS
CAD
CAM
MATERIALS
MACHINE WORK (FORMS & TEMPLATES / PER INSTRUMENT - BOTH OPTIONS AVAILABLE)
We will:
Create 3D scans, CAD/CAM files from a model or design.
Fulfill all pre-production requirements: forms and fixtures.
Prepare wood, joining plates as needed. Your wood or ours.
Machine tops, backs, scrolls, and necks - to your specifications.
Create rib assemblies.
And more!
If you want an instrument that bears your label, achieves your own design goals and offers tremendous value to your clients – we want to be on your team! Now, even the smallest shop can do what only the ‘big shops’ used to do: have a proprietary instrument for you to sell at prices most families can afford! No minimum order required. Minimal set up costs.
We will do all this at competitive prices and to the
specifications you demand. And we are in Vermont - our clients are always welcome to come and watch the process.
It is often said that the US cannot be competitive. We beg to differ. Being domestic offers more opportunity for client control and we have built efficiencies into our process. Our makers are all trained luthiers, and understand the exacting quality standards you require.
Our Mission is to create components of quality that enable our retail partners to build unique, high performing, instruments of beauty.
EBONY ALTERNATIVES
Ebony, historically used for violin fingerboards, tailpieces, pegs, nuts, saddles and chinrests, is under extreme pressure in our world of diminishing resources. Development, roads, agriculture and logging have depleted ebony reserves in natural forests. We believe that making music should not come at the cost of our precious environment!
To this end, V. Richelieu™ has sourced two eco alternatives, options that are beautiful, all-natural, and fully functional as ebony alternatives. Sonowood™, from Switzerland, is made from compressed wood of sustainable species: spruce, maple, and beech. Sonowood is 100% natural, 100% sustainable and a beautiful option! Sonowood provides the strength and tonality fingerboards require and planes, chisels, and sands just like ebony.
V. Richelieu™ is also using a recycled paper products to create the GaiaTone series of violin fittings. GaiaTone fingerboards are nearly indistinguishable from ebony and yet are made from 95% post-consumer paper waste held together with all natural bio-resins. GaiaTone fittings are petroleum free.
SONOWOOD
Density same as Ebony
Sound velocity higher than Ebony
Made from sustainably sourced wood with no petroleum products
Hardness same as Ebony
Aesthetically attractive maple, spruce, and beech - Feels like Ebony
Compatible with traditional workshop tools: carves like ebony
Hide glue compatible
GAIATONE FITTINGS
Density same as Ebony
Sound velocity lower than Ebony
Is 100% made in the USA
95% post consumer paper combined with bio-resins. No petroleum products
Looks like Ebony
Compatible with most workshop tools
Hide glue compatible
All Sonowood and GaiaTone fittings are sold fully finished and ready to mount to a violin or viola neck. They can be customized, but you'll love how little labor is required!