Joseph Grubaugh 16 1/4" viola, 1982, San Francisco | Metzler Violins

[future details about this instrument are forthcoming]

About the Instrument
This viola has a lustrous russet varnish applied over a golden ground with a somewhat subtle flame figure falling slightly from the treble side on its one-piece back. Its ribs and scroll are made from a plainer wood. This instrument is in excellent condition.

Interior label reads: “Joſeph Grubaugh fecit / San Franciſco anno 1982”
Length: 402 mm (16 1/4”)
Upper Bouts: 191 mm
Middle: 135 mm
Lower Bouts: 243 mm

About the Maker
Joseph Grubaugh (1950- ) is a contemporary luthier based in Northern California. After moving throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, Grubaugh’s family settled in San Francisco when he was 13. He went on to earn a degree in Music Theory and Composition from the University of the Pacific, then, in 1972, began a three-year working under Albert C. Muller in Sacramento as Muller’s apprentice. In 1977, Grubaugh moved to Los Angeles to join the workshop of master luthier and restorer Hans Weisshaar and further developed his knowledge of restoration. While in Weisshaar’s atelier, Grubaugh met his future wife and luthier collaborator, Sigrun Seifert. They moved to the Bay Area in 1979, working in Petaluma since 1980 and building their first instrument together in 1982 and continuing their work in cooperative instrument making in the decades since as is reflected on their labels. The collaborative instruments have received numerous gold and silver medals from the Violin Society of America. Grubaugh has received recognitions from the First America Federation of Violin and Bow Makers the Violin Society of America gave him the status of Hors Concours. He has continued to attend workshops, including the Smithsonian’s Conservation and Analytical Laboratory, as well as an instructor at teh Oberlin Violin Making Workshop. In 1994, someone brought a violin in need of repairs to Grubaugh and Seifert’s shop. This was the 1732 Antonio Stradivari violin known as the “Duke of Alcantara,” a precious instrument missing for nearly thirty years from UCLA. Grubaugh and Seifert identified the instrument from the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers’ “Missing Property Registry,” ultimately aiding in its restoration to the UCLA Fowler Museum.

http://www.gsviolin.com/