Murray Kuun – The Short Story

Born just 7 years after the end of WW2. Dad an accountant

with mom being the more creative parent. I designed and made

my first "piece" at age 6, a bedside lamp. it was clear then that

I would follow a creative path through my life. At school, my

best subjects were technical drawing and woodwork. It was

also clear that I would not be content with run-of-the-mill

designs.

 

After school I worked as a cartographical draftsman for 10

years, During this time I did woodwork as a hobby only but in

1982 I started a full time furniture design and manufacture

business which ran for 35 odd years. I designed mostly very avant

garde furniture.

 

From a very early age, music was a very big part of my life,

starting in the 1950's with Elvis and his contemporaries. The

Beatles were my biggest influence in the 60's and early 70's

Going on to discover jazz and classical music a few years later.

I have been fortunate to have owned only high quality audio

systems and have always judged music by the absolute sound.

That is, the sound of live unamplified instruments in concert.

During my time as a furniture designer I dabbled in the design

and making of musical instruments, circa 1995. My first ever

instrument was a violin - my favourite instrument. Not long after

this I moved to instrument making full time.

 

It became clear early on that I would never be content making the

same instrument over and over so I began designing violins of my

own design. Not necessarily to improve the sound (I consider the

violin to be almost perfect) only to provide an alternative to musicians who preferred originality.

After moving to guitars, mandolins and ukulele's I realized that these fretted instruments were not perfect at all and could do with some re-design. My first priority is always sound quality, followed closely by aesthetics and playability. The accompanying book shows a small selection of the instruments I have made in the years since the mid 1990's.

Photo's of my first ever instrument, a traditional violin, a few in-betweens and the last one I completed 2 months ago.

PS. The long story is even more boring.