John Silakowski (1949-2022) was a violinmaker in Scottsburg, Indiana. He was the first violinmaker to make purpose built five-strings for fiddlers. He was quite productive and despite their slightly folksy appearance, his instruments are very much sought after by players for their distincive tone.

For more on the history of the rise of the five string fiddle, see Daryl Anger’s excellent 2010 Strings Magazine Article 

After Silakowski’s death, Brandon Godman, fiddler and owner of The Violinshop, Nashville, bought all the violin wood from Silakowski’s, estate.  Brandon had the idea of getting the wood into the hands of current luthiers to make their own five-string fiddles.  The idea is to promote the growing interest in five string fiddles, while also honoring the Silakowski legacy.

I’ve been making Five strings for Brandon since 2019, (see my post on the Five String Conspiracy.) and he invited me to be a part of his Silakowski Five String Project. In June 2025, I visited his his Nashville shop for two weeks to make the first fiddle for the project

Tyler Andel, bowmaker and fiddler extraordinaire, came by the shop with two Silakowski fives from his collection. I picked out a couple of details from John’s fiddles to include on my five.

August, 2025.

Back In Santa Rosa I finished the fiddle, and delivered it to Brandon at Fiddle Mercantile, his San Francisco store.

See more pictures of the Silakowski Project Five

Brandon with the first fiddle made for the Silakowski Five-String Project.

“Oh!” he says, “This sounds really good, I may have to buy it for my personal collection.”

….. Which he did 🙂