One day, mid-summer, I stopped by Benning Violins in Studio City for repairs on a friend’s cello. German-born Hans Benning was at his work station, a violin on his bench and a wood plane in his strong ...

The fragrance of varnish and curing wood drifts by as you enter Side Door Strings, transporting you to an era when objects and the tools that built them were all made by hand. A violin in the raw sits ...