Luthier Turns Chunks of Wood Into Beautiful Instruments
By Rodger Nichols
A rapt audience sits in the pews of the oldest church in The Dalles, absorbed in the music. On the face of it, it’s an unlikely combination—2 cellos and an upright bass playing a completely instrumental program. Yet they keep young people and old souls entranced with a playlist that includes instrumental versions of works by AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses, as well as Handel and Bizet.
That was the scene in late June at the 150-year-old Episcopal Chapel at Fifth and Union, which recently became available as an event space.
The group was dubbed Porchello by founder Dieter Ratzlaf, principal cellist for the Vancouver Symphony. It formed during the COVID-19 pandemic when Dieter and his wife, Erin Ratzlaf, began performing on their porch after public performances were canceled. Originally a duo, they added cellist Jonah Thomas and upright bassist Clint O’Brien.
Erin and Jonah couldn’t attend the June concert in The Dalles, and the quartet performed as a trio, with Aaron Young of the Columbia Gorge Symphony joining Dieter and Clint. It was a successful event that was also a fundraiser for the chapel.
Beaming with pride in the back of the church sat Brian Englebardt, the reason for the group’s decision to visit The Dalles. It was also a chance for Brian to see and hear one of his creations: Dieter was playing a cello Brian built from scratch.
Brian’s personal journey interweaves music and woodworking. “I’ve been playing music since I was 10,” he says. “I’d been in several bands, playing guitar and bass.”
Brian wanted to be a marine biologist, but after a year at a school affiliated with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, he decided to take a year off.
“I had been a woodworker doing construction and finish carpentry,” he says. “I left school and went back to doing finish carpentry and playing in a band 3 nights a week. We were a cover band doing blues, blues rock, and some folk rock. There was a country duo that wanted a backup band, so we joined them and played the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for the very first New York State Country Jamboree.”
Brian started to write music. He wanted to substitute a cello for the bass, but he didn’t have one.
“At that point, it just made sense to me to combine my music and woodworking experience and look into building musical instruments,” he says. “I figured if I could learn how to build a violin, I could do the rest.”
His search led him to a small number of programs nationally that provided apprenticeship certificate programs. He ultimately chose a school in Portland operated by luthier Paul Schuback.
“I was 19 at the time, and my parents gently asked me if I wanted to see somebody and talk about it, but my mind was made up,” he says. “In late 1974, I drove my $50 1961 Volvo across the country to Oregon and started learning.”
Brian learned from a man who had started as a bow-making apprentice and moved up to violin making in France with a recognized master.
Stringed instruments are complicated to build, but those designed to be played with bows—violins, violas, and cellos—are more difficult than guitars, which generally have flat faces on the front and back. On a violin or cello, the front and back belly are carved out in complex curves that are thinner on the edge and thicker in the middle. And they are made of different woods.
“The top is spruce, and the back, sides, and neck are maple,” Brian says. “The 6 blocks inside that give it stability are made of basswood, willow, or other kinds of wood that are easy to shave with your gouge but strong enough to be secure.”
He says bending the sides is fun.
“You take your maple, cut it to a basic width, run it through a sander—though we were taught to use a scraper and plane,” he says. “For a cello, you get it down to about 1.8 or 2 millimeters thick. You dampen the wood and use a bending iron to bend it to shape, and glue it to the blocks. The blocks hold it together.”
The fronts and backs are made of 2 book-matched pieces glued together. The wood is split rather than sawn.
“What we’re trying to do is get the grain of the wood to go from narrow in the center, where it’s stronger, and wider on the sides, so it will transfer the resonance,” he says.
The outline is traced on the top and carefully cut out. Then gouges and planes, some of them small, are used to carefully shape the complex curves. As the process progresses, the luthier stops to tap the piece to see if it’s making the sound it should.
“You want your top in a cello to tap out to somewhere between a C sharp and an E,” Brian says. “So, you’re tuning it during the construction of it. Many builders do this electronically these days. It’s fascinating.”
It can take several months to make a cello, but Brian had to build one in 2 weeks for the final exam at the Schubach studio.
“People look at lutherie and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I can never do that,’” Brian says. “I’m a firm believer that anybody, if they want to take the time and have the patience to learn to use their hands and the tools properly, can build these instruments.
“I love the feel of working with wood. I love the smell of it. I love carving, shaving, the scrapers, the carving tools, the knives, cutting an F hole, and carving a scroll. It’s a wonderful feeling.”