This site is dedicated to Major General John T. Honeycutt and the 63 violins and violas he made following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1969. Honeycutt was a dedicated amateur instrument maker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico who endeavored to follow the lead of the Italian masters of the 17th & 18th Century by using traditional methods and carefully selected woods. Although he passed away in 1996 at the age of 84, General Honeycutt is remembered through his instruments, many of which are used today by professional musicians throughout the world.
I personally found General Honeycutt to be a very kind man who was eager to share what he knew about violin making. When I was in high school, I met him for the first time and ended up buying a viola from him which I played for many years as a member of the Giovanni String Quartet. My brother Kirk also bought a violin from Honeycutt that he had originally built for his wife Esther to play in the New Mexico Symphony.
John T. Honeycutt is listed as a violin maker in the Directory of Contemporary American Musical Instrument Makers by Susan Caust Farrell, published in 1981.
This site serves as a record of his legacy, however incomplete it is at this time. If you have any information about the instruments listed here, please contact me. For information about other contemporary violin makers, please visit The Violin Site.
