AtlVcl

Patience, Grasshopper!

If you want something that will go up in value, invest in your education or your 401(k) If you want a musical partner for life, buy the instrument whose voice you fall in love with.

Irrespective of any "estimate", this seems to me like a reasonable price for a beautiful violin, as exampled by the number of interested bidders. I remember when I had the opportunity to buy an E. H. Roth cello for $5,000, and I still today regret I wasn't in a position to make the investment.

Your common English language spelling mistakes aside, if you don't like the advice you've gotten from Mr. Saunders and myself, you're more than welcome to follow Mr. Slobodkin's; he's equally competent. As always in modern life, a lot depends on your student's budget. Again, good luck to your student, and good day to you.

Funny, I was going to commend Mr. Saunders excellent counsel to you. (and similarly, "Glebert" from Portland!) BTW, for going on half a century now, I've sat on a whole lot of cello auditions for a major orchestra, and I've only ever rejected someone once (i.e, 1 time) because of their instrument. That said, since you seem to not appreciate thoughtful advice, I'll keep my own counsel and let you pick the one out of the fishbowl that suits your purpose. Good luck to your student.

Good.

1) Yo-Yo owns the Montagnana, but is loaned the use of the Duport, presumably for as long as he wants. I seriously doubt he has any reason to want to buy it. 2) Your tax knowledge is only partly right, and always subject to change. If you leave your instrument to a family member (for instance...) instead of selling it at the/your end, it's inherited at a stepped-up value for tax purposes. And then any tax deductions are only valuable if they exceed the standard deduction, which is now doubled. This means less paperwork for a lot of us, and no Federal taxes to the working poor. 3) Kind of a shame the Batta will never come up for sale in my lifetime. It would bring an entertaining price. 4) Cool username. Presumably you don't play in a modern American orchestra.

I suppose that's true, strictly speaking, but then the question it begs is do Harrell, Ma, etc., travel with two cellos? BTW, many years ago when Heifetz, Stern etc. were active, fiddles were a great deal cheaper, and I suppose they were often bought (by some players) as speculative investments, hoping a "golden" household name would drive up its price. I know Yo-Yo doesn't own the Strad he plays, but presumably its value can't be hurt by the fact he's made a first-class living with it for a very long time.

Doubt that. Even one of the top guys only needs one fiddle (if he even owns the one he plays!)

Editors take wide license when adding superfluous directions. Karloklima is correct; it means eight equal 16th. notes.

Thank you, Bill...!

The insurance company is not in the violin business any more than your mortgage-holder is in the real estate business. Surely they unloaded it to the violin shop years ago, where you can always give it your best shot. The maker, even though he may have a great deal of sympathy for your plight, has no fiduciary interest in this outcome, and no power to decide the outcome. All else fails, write the shop a check for your violin, and close the book on this chapter of your life. N.B. I am not a lawyer, even though I may have stayed at a Holiday Inn last night. The advice is worth every penny you paid for it.

Set-ups don't solve all problems. Get a brighter sounding D string.

"...cause it slides..."

Priceless wordsmithery!