04/09/2026
Learing the basics of magic
Tarnów, Violinex
From 2011 I used to repair guitars there. I already knew a thing or two myself, and I learned a lot about stringed instruments in that place.
The guitar is a relatively new instrument, mainly an industrial product. Violins, in their masterful form, have remained unchanged. The recipes have stayed the same for hundreds of years.. They have slightly different shapes and constructions, but to this day they are made almost the same way by different masters.
So.. when I started to tear down those instruments on the daily basis and, for example, came across the first genuinely good varnish recipe, I started looking in books and old records for other historical approaches and delving into their secrets. The deeper I went, the more fascinated I became. My curiosity grew into an almost obsessive passion for understanding these old techniques and uncovering the knowledge hidden in them. I went through libraries, archival descriptions of resins, polishes, constructions, structual stress and its distribution, mechanical impedance..
Few years later, in Oslo, I perfected my own varnish for acoustic guitars, figured out my own guitar constructions and continued to learn a lot more :)
Thanks Kamil Żurek for the last photo of Violinex ;)