MUSIC'S TUNEUP MASTERS FAMILY CARES FOR VIOLINS WITH A PAST.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Hans Benning slides a new bridge into a 222-year-old Italian cello, tightens four strings over its spruce top and plucks a deep ``boing'' from its curved maple body.

``Fits fine, fits fine,'' said Benning, 59, patriarch of Studio City Music, one of the nation's top violin, viola and cello makers and restorers.

Amati. Stradiveri. Guarneri. And now, more modestly, Bennings, producing eight finely crafted instruments a year and restoring many others.

``Nothin' has changed here in 500 years,'' he said of his work. ``This cello was made in 1780; it's really our job to preserve it. I hope that someday someone will take care of our stuff.''

Studio City Music will celebrate 50 years at its Ventura Boulevard store with some of the city's top stringed musicians during a private recital Jan. 12.

Benning, a native of Germany with a penchant for Navajo bolos and Western duds, eyes two of his sons - Eric, who has assumed the role as master instrument maker, and Brian, a concert violinist and master restorer. A third son works as a sheriff's deputy in Santa Clarita.

Pictures of his wife, Nancy, adorn his bench. A master finisher, she was prompted by her father, Studio City Music founder Paul Toenniges, to become the first woman ever to attend the prestigious school for violin making in Mittenwald, Germany.

The family violin-making tradition dates back to when Nancy Benning's uncle, Carl Becker Sr., began crafting instruments in Chicago back in 1901.

``We love what we do,'' said Eric Benning, of Sylmar. ``This'll be the 103rd year of making violins, violas and cellos in our family. Fifty years (in Studio City) is a milestone. I look back and am proud to still be here.''

Eric Benning and his family make eight high-end instruments a year, each worth the price of a small- to medium-price car.

Their shop, a contemporary plate-glass building built in 1953, contains hundreds of violins, violas and cellos prized by musicians going back to the 17th century.

It also houses Renaissance instruments, wooden ships built by Hans Benning, lion-head scrolls carved by Eric, accessories, and such oddities as a German walking-stick violin and a French pocket violin.

One of a handful of violin makers in Los Angeles and among a hundred accredited manufacturers nationwide, Studio City Music has drawn top musicians from around the world for half a century.

The late Jascha Heifetz visited Studio City to repair his 1740 Guarnerius violin.

Ernie Ehrhardt, who has played for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Long Beach Symphony, ``The Lawrence Welk Show'' and numerous studios, replaced a venerable Italian cello with two Eric Benning instruments, which he praised for their superior sound.

``I think the world of him; I think he's a genius of our time,'' said Ehrhardt, 56, of Burbank. ``His talents are unsurpassed.

``As more players realize someone in Los Angeles makes instruments like this, they're buying their instruments.''

Alexis Carreon, first violist for the Calabasas and West Hollywood orchestras, praised her Benning viola for its ``warm, velvety quality.''

``I love it; it's beautiful,'' said Carreon, 47, of North Hollywood. ``Every professional in town that has tried this viola likes it, and thinks it's a superb instrument. I am honored to be playing one of Eric's violas.''

Jonathon Karoly, of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, just bought a Benning cello and praised it for already sounding ``old.''

Paul Toenniges, who studied with Becker, opened his first shop in 1950, then moved Studio City Music to its current home at 11340 Ventura Blvd. in 1953.

The area was then so seedy, family members say, that the chamber of commerce denied it membership.

Each day, the Bennings attend to their work at 5 a.m. Behind the richly decorated foyer and in view of the busy boulevard stand two benches covered with clamps, scrapers, planers, bending irons and an army of small cutting tools.

Along the walls hang bundles of horsehair for making bows. In the back, and off-site, stand five decades of the world's best aged wood - Bavarian and Bosnian tiger maple for the backs, and soft spruce for the tops.

Cutting, bending, joining, glueing, scraping, finishing and varnishing each instrument can take up to three months. The work is unhurried. Each family member contributes to the final sound - which resonates through concert halls from Los Angeles and beyond through a ``secret'' family varnish.

``We don't use any machines other than that little buzz saw for rough work,'' said Eric Benning, who made his first violin when he was 11. ``No sandpaper.''

Once a month, Hans Benning leaves his bench and wood shavings to donate food and clothing to Navajo reservations in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. He also sells Indian jewelry, at no cost.

Asked about his shop, his eyes dance in the light of sunshine streaming onto his bench.

``Look at this,'' he said. ``You're stepping back a hundred years. You get the best view. It's quiet. It's like an oasis in a crazy town. There's no high-tech gobbledygook here.

``We like it - it's family.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Eric Benning, above, shapes the surface of a cello he is crafting at Studio City Music, Inc. At left, Eric, left, joins his family, Nancy Benning, Hans Benning, Laura Phillips and Brian Benning.

(3) Hans Benning works carefully on a cello that was brought in to the Studio City Music shop for a bridge replacement.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer