Mr fixit

It's a demanding business being luthier to the contestants in this year's Michael Hill competition.

- RICHARD BETTS

“It’s really messy”, says luthier Richard Panting when I ask to see the workshop where he makes his violins and guitars.

It’s really not. It’s a wonderland of wood and varnishes and very, very sharp tools, but everything is in its right place, and he knows immediately how to lay his hands on whatever he needs. His living room is the same. There are half a dozen finished fiddles, a cello, a fistful of guitars, but it’s all tidied away.