Smallbiz/25/dp1st/mark2nd

By FRANK SWERTLOW

Staff Reporter

The sign outside the nondescript building on sleepy Larchmont Boulevard simply reads, “Rare Violins.”

Inside, violins, cellos and violas are sold, rented, repaired and restored at Hans Weisshaar Inc., a shop that many Los Angeles musicians agree is the best of its kind in the city.

“We are the best-kept secret in Larchmont,” said Margaret Shipman, president and owner of the company that first opened in Hollywood in 1947 and then moved to its present site in 1965. “Our neighbors don’t know we are here.”

But musicians do.

“On a world level, they rank as one of the very top points of contact for any fine string instrument that is to be acquired or repaired or restored,” said David Ewart, a studio musician and violinist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. “They are like a great painter who is called in to restore a Da Vinci or a Michelangelo. You don’t want to put that painting in the wrong hands.”

Bruce Dukov, a violinist and concert master at the Hollywood Bowl, recently put his $300,000 Nicholas Lupot instrument into the hands of Weisshaar for a delicate repair. The violin was made in 1811.

“They are craftsmen from a tradition that has been developed over the past 250 years in Europe,” he said.

Founder and namesake Hans Weisshaar died in 1991 and the business is now run by Shipman, his longtime associate. There are six employees up from the two in 1947.

The store has been averaging more than $900,000 a year in revenues since 1997, though Shipman said the numbers can be dramatically impacted by the sale of a single instrument, which can cost as much as $150,000. Fifty percent of the business is devoted to repairs and restoration; 45 percent comes from buying and selling violins, and the remaining 5 percent from making new violins for customers.

Weisshaar was born in Germany in 1913 and studied in Europe. Deciding he didn’t want to join the Hitler Youth movement in his homeland, he immigrated to the United States in 1937 and began working on violins in New York and Chicago. At the suggestion of master violinist Nathan Milstein, he opened for business in Los Angeles, where he made, repaired and restored violins with names like Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati.

He also sold them. An Italian Joannes Pressenda was bought by Jack Benny. Other customers included Isaac Stern and Mstilav Rostropovich.

The shop became internationally famous with the dramatic restoration of two instruments a violin and a cello. The first in 1953 involved a fabled violin known as the “Red Diamond” made in 1732 by Antonio Stradivari. Sascha Jacobsen, a violinist and concert master of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was caught in a violent storm on Pacific Coast Highway, near Sunset Boulevard. Passersby saved his life, but the violin was swept into the ocean. Found the following day, it was battered, water-soaked and filled with sand. Still, Weisshaar managed to restore the masterpiece.

His other salvage job was on another Stradivarius, “The Bass of Spain,” a cello made in 1713. Its owner, a Spanish countess, didn’t like its sound and had a local luthier replace the top with one of his own. The belly of the violin was left to bake and blister in the sun. In 1954, Weisshaar rebuilt the instrument to its original specifications.

Shipman took her cello to Weisshaar in 1968 for a repair. Fascinated, she began an apprenticeship with him and stayed on for 21 years, until his death. Today, she runs what she calls a full-service violin shop.

“The state of violin making is very healthy,” she said. “People can now make a living making violins.”

One reason is that the prices of instruments made by masters like Stradivari and Guarneri are so high that only a few people can afford the million-dollar masterpieces. “Musicians are no longer afraid of using a new instrument,” Shipman said. “In the past, it had to be old to be good.”

A new violin made at Weisshaar costs between $7,500 and $10,000 and takes about six months to complete. All violins are made from spruce, which is a soft wood, and maple, which is a hard wood. A new cello starts at $17,000. By comparison, a Stradivari violin costs upwards of $1 million, sometimes as high as $3 million.

Those in the market for antique violins must be on the lookout for counterfeits. Because the Stradivari family and other masters merely put labels inside their instruments, many counterfeiters frequently try to forge the documents.

Violin owners also have to be careful when it comes to repairs. “We see a lot of butchering,” Shipman said. “It’s shameful.”

Each room at Weisshaar’s is devoted to a different aspect of violin making and restoration. There are two workshops, several offices, a kitchen, and darkroom to help catalog restorations. The entrance of the store is full of antique lutes, mandolins and violas. There is a room devoted to cellos, a vault where rare violins are stored, and an area for tryouts. Room temperature is kept at 70 degrees to maintain the wood.

Much of the second floor is a warehouse where violins and cellos hang from the ceiling awaiting finishing. Behind the main house is a storeroom for rare types of wood used to make and repair instruments.

Some are 50 years old, bought by Weisshaar during treks to Europe. “We do a lot of spraying for termites,” she said. “Termites are not our friends.”

Hans Weisshaar Inc.

Core Business: Sale, repair, restoration, making and renting of violins and cellos

Year Founded: 1947

Employees in 1947: 2

Employees in 1999: 6

Revenue in 1997: $792,400

Revenue in 1998: $854,000

Revenue in 1999 (projected): $900,000

Goal: To provide the finest craftsmanship and artistry in the field

Driving Force: Belief in the enduring value of fine musical instruments