"It's like trying to solve a case."
In his quest to build a better violin, Fred Bodnaruk applies the attention to detail and inventiveness that helped him close cases during his career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
As a respite from the stress of police work, Fred designed and built furniture and long case clocks. A man who does nothing by halves, Fred made 54 clocks and then, "I got bored." He had also sold his investigations business and turned 70. "I turned to violins and the challenge of making them sound good."
Fred's first violin, Big Bertha, started as a piece of wide grain spruce left over from building his house. Bertha is so much larger than the tidy dimensions of the classic model that its strings had to be augmented with stovepipe wire.
Fred went on to study the principles established centuries ago in Cremona and perfected by the instrument's greatest makers, Amati and his apprentices Guarneri and Stradivari. He immersed himself in the history of the violin, learned techniques of construction and experimented with various types of wood, all with the goal of achieving the best tone for each instrument he builds.
By violin No. 21, Fred believed he could make a violin that sounded good, that is, with the correct tone. Since then, he has made one viola, a cello and 82 violins.
For Fred, each instrument is special and most have names. Cleopatra is gorgeous, with a shell inlay outlining the shape of the violin's body. The Redeemer was made from olive wood said to be from the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.
"Nature put tone into many different woods. Yes, spruce is the best conductor of sound, but why not try other woods? That olive wood rang like a bell. It can take 800 years for a desert tree like olive to reach a density that can contain such a sound," he says.
Fred's experiments with dimensions, with construction and with exotic wood, rather than the classic maple back and spruce top, have produced interesting results. He has made what might be called a "violette," smaller than a violin. A blend of the violin and the lute produced his "violute." Fred has developed a method of tuning the bottom plate that "seems to produce a bigger sound without sacrificing quality of tone," he says.
Jack Downs, former violist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, is Fred's instrument tester. "I love to try out the new things he's doing."
Jack considers his friend an expert in getting the most tone out of the instruments he makes. "Fred made a viola with a tone so unique that I bought it. He used Hawaiian koa wood," he says.
St. Roch No. 5 is the pride of Fred's collection. The St. Roch, built at Burrard Dry Dock in 1928 as a supply ship for the RCMP's Arctic outposts, completed its easterly traverse of Canada's Northwest Passage in 1942 and made the first circumnavigation of North America in 1950.
A refit of the iconic vessel at Sterling Shipyard in the 1950s yielded a piece of Burmese teak that found its way to Fred's workshop courtesy of neighbour
Bob Cornish. One of the five violins made from the salvaged St. Roch teak was given to the RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina, three were sold and No. 5 remains with Fred.
Born in 1931 into a Saskatchewan farming family of Ukrainian origin, Fred was keen to join "the Force." Of one posting, the RCMP Musical Ride, Fred remembers, "We had horses on the farm. I wanted to drive a police car and catch crooks."
A posting to B.C. led Fred to his wife, Elda, and to the North Vancouver home where they raised their four children. His career included closing 25 unsolved homicide cases and conducting undercover work. On retiring from the RCMP, Fred established the private investigation firm, FBI (that's F. Bodnaruk Investigations).
Fred finds as much pleasure in making music with his violins as in building them, attending fiddle camps and jamborees from Alberta to Arizona. Listen for Fred the Fiddler next summer when his old timer tunes return to decorate the air at Lonsdale Quay and local farmers' markets.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
