The String Workshop

Philip Whitehead is a New Zealand-born violin maker and restorer who began his career as a luthier in 1989, during which time he studied acoustics at Auckland University, and then went on to serve a full six-year apprenticeship in Violin-Making & Restoration. Gaining further knowledge and experience by studying luthiery in Italy and Australia, he has also worked and studied in various locations throughout New Zealand.

Now, with over twenty years experience in violin-making and restoration, he is regarded as one of the leading luthiers in New Zealand and has been working independently since 2004. In his workshop in North Shore Auckland, instruments of the string quartet are made according to the Italian style of violin making. These instruments are built from well-aged precious wood, and traditional copies are made following classical models of Stradivari, and Guarneri del Gesu, while his own modern models are influenced and conceived using the ancient design principle of 'Phi' - "The Golden Proportion".

Aside from the instruments of the violin family, he has also built instruments of the historical family, gaining a better understanding of the evolution in the production of sound to its culmination in the instruments of Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. Many beautiful and and sought-after instruments come through the workshop for restoration or adjustment.