An interview with Will Scherer

Scherer Violin shop

By Nadine Sekerez

Today began earlier than usual for me. At 6:34 a.m., my phone buzzed with an email notification.  Our CBMS President, John Pierce, sent out a request to the board of directors for content for this very issue of Power Pickin’. He expressed his desire to have an interview with Will Scherer, a Luthier that many of us have seen at his pop-up shop inside the Wildflower Pavillion during RockyGrass Academy. At 6:50 a.m., I happily accepted the task of writing this article. I texted Will to see if he would like to do this, and he readily agreed. When my morning meeting was canceled, I decided to make a trip to Louisville to see my friend in his work environment.

Louisville is a beautiful mining town Southeast of Boulder with a quaint downtown. Before I went to see Will, I stopped in at Moxie Bread Co. Moxie is a special place for many people, especially musicians and artists of all kinds. Andy Clark, the founder, and owner of Moxie, was a beautiful, giving person who was quick to support musicians in every way possible. It seemed fitting to stop in and grab coffees for Will and myself. I knew the staff there would know Will’s drink of choice–a cappuccino. I noticed the banjo on the wall and flashed back to times I had jammed with Andy.

With an Americano in one hand and a cappuccino in the other, I walked down to Scherer Violin Shop. I noted the welcoming front entrance with a bright and happy yellow door. My friend beamed as he greeted me and welcomed me in. There are two chairs and a small round table in the front of the two-room shop–cafe style. We sat there to catch up before we went into interview mode. Interestingly, we began by reminiscing about Andy. We listened to a song I wrote for him, which refers to Andy as The Giving Tree. We took photos as Will showed me around the showroom, and then we spent time in his studio. Will showed me a collection of old violin parts and tools. There were several old bridges with inscriptions, tailpieces, and old wooden tuning pegs displayed in an antique case with a glass top. 

We entered the studio room. There are two workbenches with various tools and lots of wood shavings. One of the workbenches was handcrafted by a woodworker in Missouri. Will began to work on rehairing a bow. As he worked with his hands, we talked about his long journey that led to this very point in time. And then, at the end of the most interesting conversation and exploration of this journey, we came around full circle, back to Andy and how Andy had been a pivotal person in helping Will open his storefront in that very spot. 

Will began as a classical violinist throughout his school career in St. Louis, Missouri. His interest began to wane for playing classical, however, as the competitive nature of it increased. His stand partner played fiddle music, which intrigued Will, so he began to go to Bluegrass, old-time jams, and hang around the violin shop of Geoff Seitz. Will had found the fun in making music he was looking for. 

Though Will graduated with a degree in Business, his passion was music. It was surprising to learn that his professional career took off with a start-up business in computers, setting up networks for businesses. He and his partners branded it as SwiftTechs-The Computer Experts and eventually sold this viable business in 2008. While this type of business seems counter to the goals of a musician, for him and his friend it was meant to be the means to the end result of having the freedom to pursue making music while making a living. However, Will describes this line of work, for himself, as soul-crushing. For him, it felt like people’s problems steadily coming at him, and for what? He wanted a more direct outlet for his musical interests. During this time, he met Laura who was attending graduate school and played guitar. Together, beginning in 2004, they began making an annual trip to Lyons, Colorado to attend the RockyGrass Academy. As I listened to Will travel in his mind through his journey, I was struck by how their goals lined up, if not obviously at first, the eventual outcomes always joined in a continuum on this path. Laura was offered a post-doc position at the University of Michigan and that is when Will made the difficult decision to sell his business in St. Louis. They headed to Michigan. What now? Influenced by St. Louis-based violinmaker, Geoffrey Seitz, Will decided he wanted to build violins, and began traveling to attend workshops to further this goal.

Eventually,  Will and Laura moved from Michigan back to, Missouri in Columbia where Will soon met violinmaker Thomas Verdot while playing a dance at the local American Legion’s Hall. Will had already been buying and selling used instruments when he met Tom. One day, during a visit in 2012, Will asked Tom if he would let him build a violin. It seemed like a one-time arrangement, but along with Tom, Will researched and obtained a grant funded by the Missouri Arts Council that enabled him to stay on as an apprentice for six rewarding years. 

Many experiences with music, violin making, and traveling to RockyGrass each year started to come together like a woven fabric. As Will and Laura continued to attend RockyGrass Academy, they made many new friends in the Colorado Bluegrass community, including Steve Szymanski of Planet Bluegrass. They enjoyed these visits to Colorado so much that Laura expressed to Will that it would be great if she were offered a full-time job at the University of Colorado (CU). Will says, “She had research overlaps and potential collaborations with faculty at CU already.” Meanwhile, they continued to visit each year.

In 2014, Will noticed an unmet need at the Rockygrass Academy. Will says, 

“As it happened, many RGA students had fiddles that were feeling the effects of our dry Colorado summer. Instrument seams were opening up, sound posts and bridges were moving or warping and there was the occasional dropped or damaged instrument or bow. These academy students would often go to the workshop for mandolin building led by Michael Hornick, Bobby Wintringham, Daniel Roberts, and Marcus Engstrom [seeking help with their instruments], but they had little time to address these problems.”

On a trial basis, in 2015, Steve asked Will if he would like to set up shop during the Academy 

as an “in-house violinmaker to work in support of academy students.” Will has been there every Rockygrass since 2015, at his work table in the Wildflower Pavillion, with a work lamp and tools, and usually, a violin in hand undergoing some procedure. He also brings a small collection of fiddles for sale that he often lends out or auditions during the week of Rockygrass Academy. I, myself, own a beautiful old violin that used to lay on that table.

In 2018, Laura was indeed offered that full-time job at CU. Will had already made many connections with bluegrassers who play fiddle and other bowed instruments. It was time to move to Colorado. They found a home in a beautiful family-friendly neighborhood in Louisville, which was idyllic for them and their two young children. (Many of us have seen their kids playing their hearts out on their own sized-down violins, busking in the best spots at Planet Bluegrass.) Will set up shop in their home. 

All was well until one blustery, dry day in December 2021--the 30th, to be exact. Shortly after 11:00 a.m., a grassfire took off, carried by the wind, and ripped through their neighborhood at uncontrollable speed. One of the first houses to catch fire was the Scherer family home. Will told me that because it was one of the first to catch fire before it became uncontrollable, the firefighters doused their house with water, believing they could contain the fire. They could not. More than 1,000 buildings were completely destroyed, two lives were lost, and there were several injuries. The Scherer home was left standing because of having been doused early with water from the firefighters’ hoses. Nevertheless, the family house was destroyed by flames and lots of smoke damage, and they were displaced. They could not enter their home for days, and when they did, most items were eerily left just as they had been when they had left their home to go on a trip. (They were not home when the fire broke out.) Many items that at first seemed salvageable, sadly were not. Will tells me that, amazingly, many of the really important items in his workshop were removed and restored, though many items had melted from the extreme heat. He shows me pictures on his phone. There were some clients’ instruments he had packed up before leaving on their trip and tucked away in a closet where they were remarkably sheltered from the heat and smoke. While it may have initially seemed like the Scherers largely escaped the effects of the fire (judging by the initial photos of their house left standing among the ruins), they did not. As of this writing, they still reside temporarily in Boulder while their home is being rebuilt. This has been a tedious process–more so since it did not burn down completely. The insurance company has had procedures for every single step of rebuilding, so while they are still waiting for completion, many of their neighbors are living in their newly built homes. It is anticipated to be done and ready for move-in, in December of 2023.

So, how did Will get to be in the very storefront we sat in today? We have now come full circle back to Andy Clark of Moxie. Andy saw a need and immediately took action, as was his way of moving through this world. He set up a GoFundMe on behalf of the Scherer Family and Scherer Violin Shop so that Will could set up shop in Louisville, just a couple blocks down from Moxie. Andy also set up his own shop of sorts at Moxie to acquire food, clothing, and other goods for victims of the Marshall Fire. This brings me to the portions of our conversation today that talk about why Will wanted to be a luthier and not a “computer guy”. 

Will says, “I wanted to do something that my kids could understand and know that my chosen career mattered to me.”  Will wanted to do something that also had longevity or legacy. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “legacy” as, “The long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life.” He wants to leave a positive legacy. When a person comes to him with a beautiful instrument and they need something done that will help them continue to share that music, it reaches beyond that one act. There is joy when it is brought to him. The reach is infinite and immeasurable. It is vibration. We talked about the physicality of the vibration of music that extends from one person to the other. How our brain waves are even affected. I recalled that the violin I bought from him was made in the 1800s in Germany and I wondered how many people have played it. When Will reflected on what Andy and others did to make it possible for him to open up his shop in Louisville, he expressed that what Andy did was also the type of thing that lives on in people. Will said the way Andy Clark supported and encouraged musicians and entrepreneurs had a ripple effect like the Giving Tree. 

Since this is an article for a Bluegrass publication, I felt it appropriate to ask about what kind of musicians come to the shop. Figured we should get back to “Bluegrass.” Of course, many of our fellow Bluegrass musicians entrust their fiddles to Will, in addition to classical violin and cello players and folk players. In fact, there were two violins in the shop belonging to well-known fiddle players in our Colorado Bluegrass community. There are college students and younger students whose parents rent a violin. 

As Will talked to me, he worked on a bow. He asked me, “Do you know what a wedge is?” Well, I know what a wedge is in the general sense, but related to the bow? Even though I just had a bow rehaired by Will, I did not really know the anatomy. In front of my eyes, Will whittled away at a tiny piece of Willow to make an exactly sized and shaped tiny wedge to insert into a socket in the frog. He explained that it keeps the ribbon of horse hair spread out like it needs to be. While the bow hairs were waiting for the wedge to be inserted to keep them in place, Will used a dog comb that he had crafted to spread the hairs out to ready them for the wedge. It was quite satisfying when he was able to perfectly insert that wedge into the socket. After that, I was curious how the horse hair is attached to the bow tip. He extracts a plug from the tip mortise that holds the hairs in place. I told him it reminded me of tooth extraction. He laughed and it said it kind of does. Then we talked about dental work for a bit. Ha!

I am struck by the patience it takes to do this precision shaving of a tiny sliver of wood for the wedge. In fact, he does shave off too much on the first piece, and starts anew, with zero frustration. Later, when he is talking about the six years of apprenticeship, I see the parallel. Not everyone would stick to that level of training to accomplish a goal. There is patience on a broad scale, and patience on a teeny, tiny scale. Will has all of the above. I thought of the analogy of fabric and the many threads that weave together to create it. There were many threads that were followed by both Will and Laura to create this fabric of what they are and what they do. 

I asked Will if he had gone to Bluegrass jams lately. He said he does one regularly with Justin Hartman of OZO Coffee (and of Coleman Square at RockyGrass), and that Pat Carbone regularly visits the shop and sometimes they break out into a jam. Will said he was surprised that Pat had not popped in while I was there. When I was getting ready to leave, an artist friend of Will’s stopped in. He is a watercolor artist who has done posters for festivals, and he has taken violin lessons from Sandra Wong. We chat a bit about art and music and discover, as musicians do time and again, that it is a small musical world with many crossovers, and then on my way out I am, sure enough, greeted by Pat Carbone. We are so connected in our Bluegrass community, very much a part of the fabric that Will weaves. It’s a big, fun loom here in Colorado!

Thank you, Will, for taking the time to talk about your craft, and for your clarifications on details to help me write this article!

Scherer Violin Shop is a CBMS Business Members and they can address your needs with violins, violas and upright bass. You can find them at:

Scherer Violins
844 Main Street, Suite 103, Louisville, Colorado 80027
720-460-9403