Stephen M. Schock Violins — Local services in Bloomington

I'm an adult-amateur violinist/guitarist, which means that I'll never get paid for playing but it brings me great joy to play anyways.Steve has repaired, appraised, and sometimes improved several instruments for me over the years, most notably an early 19th century Italian violin. His work is consistently excellent and affordable. He helped me obtain the appropriate level of insurance for my instruments, and helped me file a successful claim when the violin above suffered serious fall damage (repair costs well over a thousand dollars - and that was cheap for the amount and the intricacy of the work needed.) After this repair, the violin sounds better and holds its tuning much longer than it did beforehand. Steve found and fixed a major problem with the button/bottom end block and didn't even charge me for the extra work/materials. He insists on being (sometimes brutally) honest and producing excellent results for his customers. In my opinion, he's a exceptional, honest, hard-working craftsman of the highest order (an artist, really, although I would wager he'd consider himself more of an experienced engineer or expert mechanic of stringed instruments.)

As others have noted, Steve's interpersonal communications can come off harsh or even rude in some cases. He's not exactly what one might call a people person, at least with customers (which is the only experience I have with him.) Personally, I'm fine with that. In all honesty, that's perfect for me. He's completely honest, he sells products and repairs for fair prices, he doesn't do the car salesman act, and he doesn't try to schmooze anybody into expensive crap they don't need. He doesn't play violin and when I asked him about that he said something along the lines of (paraphrasing) "master mechanics don't race the cars." I'm not buying instruments made by Steve. I'm asking him to expertly service the instruments I have for fair prices. Someday I will very likely ask him to help me find and acquire other instruments/bows. The way Steve operates works great for me and my situation. Your mileage may vary depending on your priorities. If you want Salespeople to razzle-dazzle you and make you feel better about yourself and your purchases/expenditures/instruments, go to Melody Music or some such. I'm sure somebody will tell you that whatever piece of trash they're peddling is just the ticket. I'll stick with Steve as long as he's in business, because he doesn't waste my time or money trying to make sure my feelings don't get hurt.

The world of high-end stringed instruments and the path for people trying to become professional classical musicians doesn't seem particularly inviting or kind. If a kid hasn't started playing (and not much else, apart from school) by, say, age 10 or so at the very latest (ideally 3 or 4), they're exceedingly unlikely to become professionals. It helps a lot (read: it's almost required) if their parents are VERY wealthy and the home life is COMPLETELY rock-solid stable. Telling kids that they can make it otherwise is a bit like telling a kid with five foot tall parents that they can be a professional basketball player. Yes, technically, its possible. In practice, you'd almost certainly be setting that kid up for failure and trauma if they invest their time and mental energy too heavily / too specifically. This was a bit of a culture shock for me when I first started fiddling as a young adult in relative poverty.

Most people selling instruments, bows, repairs will try to upsell you, schmooze you, make you feel better about whatever situation you're in, and generally lie to you about reality and your place in it in order to make more money. Steve doesn't do that. So some people will choose to be offended and go get screwed somewhere else. Others, like me, will appreciate the no BS approach and continue bringing our instruments (our most cherished possessions, the most important non-living things we have) to Steve for the excellent services and...

We have taken a 1/2 scale violin to him for new strings and a new bridge and we have used it for many years, it has been great for our early learners. When bringing a full scale beginner violin to him to fix, we were told in front of my son that the violin was no good and wasn’t worth fixing. He was embarrassing and made us feel like fixing the peg would be degrading to him. He agreed to fix it and I came back in to pay for the repair alone. I confronted him and addressed the demeaning attitude he had in front of my son. I told him that I hoped that he hadn’t discouraged my son from playing. He replied that he told all parents that wouldn’t buy a good instrument for a beginner, “ You should quit violin lessons and put them in soccer!” He did not offer an apology or anything. Yes, the violin we are currently using is not a high end violin, but our son loves playing and has moved quickly through his lessons. We are checking out intermediate violins now and looking to buy a really nice one. We will pass up Mr Schock because of his attitude. I hope he will someday see that if a child wants to learn and play, whether they have a cheap beginner instrument or an expensive instrument, the child should be encouraged to keep learning and keep playing. There are better ways to tell a parent that a better instrument is needed. Pull the parent aside and let them know privately and then encourage the child to...

the best. I'm sure he takes good care of all the violinsts at Indiana University, but he also takes excellent care of all the oldtime Bloomington fiddlers. Stop by and check him out. He will sell you just about any set of strings you can buy online at that same price or better, plus he will put them on for you.

very quick bow rehairing, One or two days if you really need it bad.

and much more, always has a bunch of old violins hanging around for sale

Once he's gone, I don't know what we are going to do (and he aint getting any younger, so you better get in there pretty soon and...