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Et tu!

To me, that lack is what matters. A good instrument needs to allow musical playing. That isn't possible if you're stuck in one end of the color palette. If an instrument offers range, but excels more at one end, that's fine. But if it excels at one end and lacks range, that is entirely unbalanced and bad. The setup should be reworked for better balance.

In related news, I found 43 results for "sounds like crap", and everyone seems to agree on what it means. https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/search/&q="sounds like crap"&search_and_or=or&sortby=relevancy BTW, Happy Mother's Day!!!!

I'm not sure about a freezer; I keep mine in a sealed bag in a cool dry place for a couple of years and more with no problems. Once I've made up a batch of repair varnish, I make sure to test it fairly frequently after six months or so, to make sure it still dries hard.

So here is the latest graph after a few sound adjustments though. I waited by purpose a month, knowing that the playing characteristics need to settle in. Presumably this is a stretch in effect. So now its a flat walnut back. Graduations made from the outside with the goal of creating a thicker Island in the center. So I was removing wood only in the upper and lower bout. In the center I touched only the bass side C bout area. So very roughly (measured with a Hacklinger) it looks like 5mm between the C bouts except on the bass side where it goes down to 4.5. Upper bout thinnest spot aroun

Oh I understand what you mean, I wasn’t talking about that as a general comment on the overall sound of an instrument, more, a particular passage. If I’m playing a passage on the A string and then I move high up on the D string And play the same passage, the resulting sound will be warmer and darker because I’m playing on a thicker string with more mass, I guess. Overall brightness or lack thereof, I have always thought of as being a function of string choice, and I would say a cello sounds warmer with those strings and brighter with those strings. I’m not sure I’ve ever considered an overall

This doesn't make sense to me. If you are describing a violin's tone, you can describe what is present and what isn't, but I don't understand how the lack of one characteristic should result in ignoring a trait that is present. How about "lovely, warm tone but lacking in brilliance"?

Sure. I always start with the benefit of the doubt, but don't ignore red flags that I have learned about, mostly the hard way. One of those is that a rating below 98% on Ebay is sketchy in itself.

After giving it some thought, maybe starting discussions about this seller, violinonline, in various fora, so that he'll show up on search engines, would be about as effective as anything a person could do, being careful to stick strictly to the truth, of course.

Yes, seller sounds quite sketchy. I have worked with Fred since the late 70's; he did my first violin appraisals (still have the appraisal and one of the fiddles!). I was surprised this guy would name-drop him. Fred knows his stuff. I was writing in more general terms. Some people put a "Strad" up for sale because that is what they honestly think it really is. And eBay will force a return and give you money back if listing is fraudulent or erroneous.

You are not taking my meaning. We agree that these are both positive, and mean much the same. My point is that I won't use positive adjectives unless an instrument does a fair job of producing the opposite end of the spectrum. If an instrument had a lovely warm capacity, but couldn't also produce a reasonable brilliance when called, then I would use only negative adjectives like dull, muted, etc.

I think of "round" as having good low frequencies, or fundamentals on the low strings... too round becomes "tubby".

I gave him a pretty good case, citing the obvious points, and invited him to give Fred Oster a call if he indeed works so closely with him. I've dealt with Oster before and found him to be honest and well informed. Seller dropped several other names who would clearly know better, and the story keeps changing. He's supposed to be in Holland at the moment.....

Like another commenter above, they make more sense to me when considered as ends of a spectrum: Clean vs Muddy/Fuzzy Complex/Rich vs Thin? (is complex the same as rich?) Resonant vs Tinny Open vs Nasal Smooth/velvety vs Harsh/Raspy Dark vs Bright Ringing vs Dull I have used "round" to describe a violin but not sure I can adequately explain what that means....but I think I know it when I hear it.

This is problem with individual interpretation...when I think "warm and dark"...I am reminded of changing babies' diapers in the middle of the night...

Wow! great darkness. How long did you cook it for to achieve that?

I bet he got to see Pinky’s violin when he was living in Canada. After hearing him play that violin, how could you not be seduced!

Unfortunately, in my lexicon, warm and dark are essentially the same thing. They are both good sound quality, neither is associated with great power, but if someone says, “oh that is a lovely dark sound“ or, “oh, that is a lovely warm sound, I’m going to interpret that as meaning the same kind of sound.

WW grade rosin darkens just fine if cooking it down for color is what you’re doing, so does the FF (dark stuff).

That fiddle looks super classy. Is the "Dushkin" your go-to Guarneri model? Do you make it with thick graduations, or do you just adjust them according to players?

This seller, violinonline, claims "We are based in Rockville, Maryland and work closely with the well-known luthier an repairman MICHAEL WELLER, who checks and adjusts our instruments before shipping", which seems a little difficult, considering that Weller retired and moved back to the Netherlands, https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/345145-michael-weller’s-retirement/ . Since they've been on eBay since Dec 08, 1997, their member listing may simply be out of date. eBay has an anti-fraud department, but getting their attention can be difficult, as can proving your case to t

The seller at least offers a 30-day return which would give the buyer time to figure out that it was misrepresented. Also, even without this return policy, the buyer could return it under eBay's guarantee for being inauthentic. Consider, too, Michael, that the seller might sincerely believe that it is a Deblaye.

Probably so, but I wish there were some way to spread the word about such blatantly obvious liars, because most regular people just don't know, and don't have recourse in cases that are relatively petty like this.

I fear that one can only shrug and walk on

Of course. The list was hardly subliminal was it?