John Waddle graduated from the Violin Making School of America in 1981, where his instructors included Peter Prier, Paul Hart, Jeff Robinson and Chris DeGroot. He then worked in Peter Prier’s violin shop for one year, before getting married to a wonderful woman, and moving to Los Angeles to join the workshop of Hans Weisshaar. After two years John left L.A. to be shop foreman at Davis Violin Shop in Minneapolis, where he remained for two years, before opening his own shop in St. Paul in March of 1986.