SEATTLE — In a small house on Queen Anne Hill, masters of their craft breath new life into priceless instruments that date back hundreds of years.
"I’ve got instruments that are built from 1590,” said Rafael Carrabba, owner of Rafael Carrabba Violins. “We do major restorations and minor repairs. Just about everything that's to do with stringed instruments."
Carrabba along with fellow luthiers Windsor Lindberg and Scott Allen restore stringed instruments like the violin and the viola, but they are known for what they can do with cellos.
"We love working on cellos," Carrabba said. "People from all around the United States have heard of us. Then there is the restorations that take a year or two to complete that are very detailed."
Carrabba started when I was 11, 12 years old. His mother worked at a violin shop, she was also a violinist, working for David Saunders.
"[Saunders] was a really wonderful man and he hired me for 25 cents an hour back then," he said. "After about a year or two working there he said ‘one day this will be yours’. And I thought 'fine.' At that point, at 14 I knew I would do this all my life.”
For Carrabba, part of the fun of restoration is working with the customers and developing a relationship with them.
"I wouldn’t go anywhere else to have work done on this cello. I would only come here because this is a $100,000 cello," said customer Don Larson. "It’s all old world. We’re back 400 years or something because they are doing this intricate work and if they screw up, they destroy an $8 million, $16 million cello."
Restoring these historic, fine instruments is a craft takes a certain level of perfectionism - one that Carrabba has.
"I think it’s like neurotic – it’s become that way, but I’m happily doing it, I’m glad," he said.
From casting and patching to sanding and staining, getting these instruments to sing again is a labor of love.
"It’s a lot of fun you know, knowing that you recreated something that will be good for at least another 100 years," Carrabba said.
Rafael Carrabba Violins is located on 405 W. Galer St. and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by private appointment.
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