A visionary approach to understanding and building violins

Steve Rossow, Steve Sirr, M.D., and John Waddle

Steve Rossow, Steve Sirr, M.D., and John Waddle

 A new Dakota Street Design website, Trio Violin Project, has just launched (www.trioviolinproject.com). Dr. Steve Sirr, M.D., is a radiologist and violinist. In 1988 he had a lull in the work day and ran his violin through a CT X-ray machine, revealing an interior view of the instrument he had never imagined. He took the scans to his friend luthier John Waddle who found them equally fascinating.

Fast forward 15 years or so and the two of them connected with luthier Steve Rossow, who designed a system for carving out violin parts that exactly replicate the scans using a CNC machine. Using scans of a 1704 Stradivarius (the "Betts," now in the collection of the Library of Congress) they have successfully re-created replicas of the instrument which are not only fine works of art, but beautiful instruments in their own right.

Read more about Dr. Sirr, his colleagues and this project at: Trio Violin Project