Sabathil & Son

Additional testimonials available upon request.

Dr. Paul H. Ling of Toronto, Ontario writes:

Dear Sigurd, Monica, and Barb,

As promised, here is a follow-up, now that we have had a little over a week to allow my new harpsichord and clavichord to “settle in”.

Please accept my wholehearted thanks for the first-rate work and care you have put into these new instruments. Maestro Sabathil. Dealing with a more traditional, individual master of an art such as yourself is something many of have missed, especially in this modem society which tends to place more priority on mechanised, impersonal mass-production and hit-and-run service, as I call it. The fact that you had dispatched the finished instruments on trust, before even receiving my final payment in full, told me something else very positive about the way you all do business, an aspect of which I was already aware through the nature of our prior correspondences.

The instruments now reside in my private clinic in downtown Toronto, which I have turned by design into a sort of personal musical conservatorium. Your striking aesthetic workmanship has already drawn numerous compliments from our patients, even those who have no knowledge of classical and baroque music – although the instruments are there for my own purpose and not for theirs.

Even after their long transport, neither instrument required any more than minimal regulating and tuning and I note with satisfaction the modern methods you have employed in their construction. As Barb had pointed out, the kind of tuning stability this should afford will be something whose worth becomes apparent over time (Barb, you were right; my violin and piano background was invaluable in figuring out how to tune the instruments, although the mysteries of tuning various temperaments still eludes me somewhat).

I had dealt with numerous other makers in the harpsichord field prior to finalising our order with you only to find that many cling, rather unnecessarily in my opinion, to slavish re-creations of traditional instruments which themselves were continually undergoing improvement. One could even argue that the more current design of a Sabathil instrument was the end-point that older designers such as Ruckers were seeking. Maybe even Handel and Bach would have been pleased to have this technology available to them!

The other small touches I also appreciate, including the 12-inch LP record, the tuning fork and extra strings, and so on. The artwork on the sounding boards in particular is most beautifully rendered. At some future time, as I indicated to Barb, and once I have had sufficient time to practice, I will send a brief performance video.

Maybe a traditionalist like myself might even be able to figure out how to send one on YouTube, which seems to be Barb’s favoured method. Barb, it has been a pleasure to deal with you also. Are you going to be the next generation of Sabathil instrument builder?

Remaining Yours Sincerely,

Paul Ling
Adjunct Clinical Professor, University of Western Ontario
Postgraduate Examiner & Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh