A retired Iowa State University sociology professor has combined his love of woodworking and music to help out young musicians.
Paul Lasley played the upright bass for years in a local group, but took up the violin after retiring four years ago. It was smaller and easier to handle, and a nod to his great-grandfather who played what he calls the fiddle.
One of his favorite old fiddles broke and he decided to try to bring it back to life. “I’ve always enjoyed woodworking. And I said, you know, I’ll bet I can go on YouTube and see what kind of glue I need and and how you disassemble and reassemble a fiddle,” Lasley says.
He began looking for fiddles to fix at thrift stores and through relatives. “I’m not trained and I wouldn’t work on an expensive violin, but the kind of violins that I’m collecting, sometimes I call them refugees from from the the trash barrel,” he says. Lasley says he likes the challenge of getting the violins to sing again.
Lasley decided to donate the revamped instruments, remembering his start in elementary school band in Queen City, Missouri. His parents couldn’t afford a new instrument, so the school gave him a beat up metal clarinet that stood out among the newer clarinets other kids played. Lasley says it gives the beginners an instrument that looks good that they can start on. “And I tell people that an old instrument fixed up sounds, and actually oftentime plays better, than a new instrument imported from around the world and made with cheap wood,” he says.
Lasley so far has donated 18 refurbished fiddles to the Iowa State Center’s Stephens Auditorium instrument drive, which are loaned out to local school districts. “It’s really about giving young people an opportunity that they can bond with,” Lasley says.
If you have a violin or parts to one that you’d like to donate, you can email Lasley at: plasley@iastate.edu. You can also donate other musical instruments to local band and orchestra programs or drop them off in the cart in the Stephens Auditorium ticket office lobby in Ames.
