Marples Violins
About the Maker
Douglas Marples graduated from the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City in 2007 having studied with Charles Woolf, Georg Meiwes and
Peter Paul Prier. Since graduation, he has been at the workbench crafting concert quality violins, and violas as well as studying advanced restoration
techniques in the shop of Amos Hargrave. Located in the midwestern college town of Lawrence, Kansas, the Marples Violins workshop is open for tours and
instrument trials by appointment (see the Contact page).
Violin making is a second career for Doug, who earned an M.D. degree in 1980 and was subsequently board certified in Internal Medicine in 1983. He
spent 23 years in clinical practice in Western Kansas before making the jump to violin making school.

Marples Instruments are the result of intensive and ongoing development of construction and finishing techniques that are grounded in the classic
Northern Italian masters of the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. Inspiration for instruments starts with historic models by makers such as the
Amati family, Gasparo da Salo, Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri 'del Gesu' and JB Guadagnini. Using the finest tonewoods and meticulous attention
to detail, fine instruments are being produced.
Aspiring to recreate a finishing system that does justice to the beauty of these historic instrument models, Marples uses traditional ingredients to produce a
classic linseed oil and balsamic resin varnish. The result is a lustrous and transparent finish that compliments both the tonal and visual esthetic of the
instruments.
By concentrating on the production of new instruments, Marples is currently completing about 8 to 10 new instruments yearly. He is a member of the
Violin Society of America.