bean_fidhleir

quote: Originally posted by: MidwesternCheapjack A really interesting looking fiddle! I don't think it's a Barak Norman, based on my tiny knowledge. I couldn't possibly speak to the identity of the maker, but that label looks like a modern fraud to me.

Yuen, click on "Advanced Search" (in the upper right corner). You will get a page with a lot of different search options. Look down til you see "From specific sellers (enter sellers' user IDs)", and put in "padah_hound", then go down to the bottom of the page and click the Search button. Once it displays Jesse's stock, look for "Add to favorite searches" on the right hand side a bit down from the top of the page and click that. Your search for Jesse's stock will then become a search you can do automatically. You can even let ebay mail you any time Jesse puts up a new fiddle. Hope that helps.

I can't really see much more than glare on the back, but the neck certainly does look suspect. Whenever i see one with painted-on flaming, I always wonder what the painter's situation must have been like. The poor soul couldn't have been being paid more than a Groschen an hour, since that's the only way it would have been more economical to tediously paint on fake flaming rather than simply use a marginally higher grade of wood. It makes me wonder whether flame-painting was the Mittenneuwaldkirchen equivalent of the garment-district sweatshops in New York City, where teenage girls slaved away without making enough to live on.

But don't you think Windscale is right, though? It feels rare to see one, especially of so poor a quality as this, with the correct number of turns.

To me it looks German and low-end (integral bassbar, etc) student quality.

quote: Originally posted by: COB3 Another thing to remember, is that, in the 3rd-world countries producing these cheap instruments, (tools, clothing, etc.) that "sweatshop" (from our perspective) is frequently far and away the BEST job in the area. People line up for blocks to get a chance to work there. That's a very good point! What's also worth knowing is what Barbara Garson illuminated in her book Money Makes The World Go Round, in which she tracked her book advance from her local bank all the way over to Asia. She discovered that people do jump at the chance to get one of these jobs...but are then left destitute when the corporations move on to the next place with cheap labor. They try to return to their old lives and find that it's no longer possible---the whole basis of the economy has changed. Pollution has driven away or killed the fish, local companies have been driven out of business, animals have lost their habitat, prices are higher, the wealthy have bought up village land, etc. (I was shocked to read...not in her book, another one...that Japanese fishermen now have to go hundreds of miles out to sea to find the tuna that their dads used to catch in Tokyo Bay.)

quote: Originally posted by: Jacob It has slipped my mind what articles were produced in the environment you mention where the level of artisanship can be compared to a modern Chinese violin. Could you refresh my memory? They did machine tools to a high standard if I recall correctly, Jacob. Also hand-engraved printing plates. Probably other things, too, but those for sure.

quote: Originally posted by: ctviolin I don't even want to get into the whole democracy/freedom thing. All you have to do is look at the last (US) election, and the general current state of affairs in the world to see what's left of most of those things. True that! quote: Are cheap violins somehow such a pivotal a product, that we must feel guilty when buying one? I don't think we're so much saying 'feel guilty', Craig, as 'be aware that it's only a bargain because other people are being forced to pay part of the true cost'.

quote: Originally posted by: Jacob The kind of work ethic we see in modern Chinese instruments cannot be enforced by any means. I don't know about that, Jacob. Look at the work the Nazis (often) managed to get out of their victims in the konzlager.

It looks like it comes from quite far north in Italy, Tirol perhaps

Exactly, Manfio and Cassi. Wherever Capitalism reigns, there'll always be people forced to work for just enough money so that they die slowly rather than quickly. "We held on for six weeks / Thought each day were our last / We tallied and shifted and we were quite fast / We lived upon nettles while nettles were good / And Waterloo porridge was the best of our food"

I appreciate the point you make, but my troubles with the plug falling out are almost peripheral to my question. My sense is that the job he did was okay, about the same as the original hairing. What I was trying to get at with my question was, if I take it to some randomly chosen rehairer who's local to me now (he no longer is), what are my chances of getting good work.

quote: Originally posted by: Salieri I think there might be an incompatibility issue with your computer vis-a-vis those photos, raspritz. I'm seeing some pretty extraordinary detail in those large photos. I am too. The depth-of-field is too shallow, but where it's in focus there a LOT of detail.

quote: Originally posted by: Jeffrey Holmes Look... Once you've found a person who does what you want and need with a bow (or an instrument, for that matter), I advise sticking with them... even when it's not convenient. That makes sense to me, Jeffrey. I'm at the point before that, tho: I had one rehair done by an actual bowmaker, member of the VSA yadda yadda. But the plug fell out one day a year or so later and of course promptly got lost. Which seems to imply that he didn't do a very good job, but maybe not. So I'm wondering do I put the failure down to bad luck or to his error, and should I go back to him (it would indeed be inconvenient), or should I pick someone else out of the phone book. Whence my question

It feels a pity that you reckon not to carry on making, Matt. Judging purely by the look of your second fiddle in process, you have the gift for it. Just a thought.

I thought those fat f-hole notches (the brown one) were characteristic of German makers, Jesse. The fs on the reddish one look less Stainerish to me than the ones in the brown one, which for the 18th c. should point to the reddish one not being German, shouldn't it? Were there any ethnic-German makers at that time not working to a Stainerish model?

Sure, if you can talk him down to a price you want to pay, then why not. You might even get quite a good fiddle out of it (tho probably not). On the other hand, you can probably get the same experience more cheaply by buying a cheesy Chinese vso. If your goal is only to experiment, a vso will do you just as much good as a more expensive v.

Okay, I gotta ask: if the table is by Gobetti, why is it being hawked as a Strad rather than a composite? The table is not a trivial part of the instrument. It puts me in mind of the zen question about how many legs do you have to take off of a table before it stops being a table. Did anyone else notice how wonderfully the graft was done? The wood is so closely matched up that it looks like a 'scratch graft'.

From things I've read on MN, it's apparently possible to get a really superb re-hair. Logically, therefore, it's possible to get a dreadful one. But what are the odds? And what are the factors that sum up to make a re-hair superb/satisfactory/dreadful? Enquiring minds, etc.

Bob, it sounds like you got quite the deal here. Congratulations!

quote: Originally posted by: yuen Hi all, I cannot help myself of asking this question: Why a luthier wanted to brand the back like this, if he was the maker luthier? Or Davis Gilbert was a owner who did not care the violin very much, but why? I'm sure it was the owner (probably a kid) that did it. A maker would have to be out of his tiny mind to do something like that.

quote: Originally posted by: Preach Generally medium arching with Stradivarian outline, occasionally flatter and larger. Strad outline or larger plus Strad arching or flatter would seem to be exactly the opposite of the fiddle you have, wouldn't it?

A composite, maybe? The table doesn't look at all like the back (to me). It does look like it could be the age claimed, but the back doesn't especially, and I don't see any sign of a head graft or peghole rebushing (does anyone else?) One thing for sure, that table hasn't enjoyed a pampered life!

I just saw a story from the Ottowa Citizen about Air Canada having wiped out a $13K viola in checked baggage. The full story here: http://www.canada.com/ottawaci...4d7f-b076-875c835a032e

quote: Originally posted by: Michael Darnton As I've said before, if Ebay were a local bar, the police would have shut it down long ago because of the things that happen under its influence. How it can be immune to responsibility for this stuff is beyond my understanding. I couldn't get away with "there's too much going on for me to watch everything" as an excuse! Michael, from something I was reading the other day, the reason they needn't worry is that legally they're similar to newspapers and cartage companies--they're carriers. A carrier's only obligation is to the one that's paying their fee. Their role doesn't include the obligation to become content experts or police because it would be an impossible burden. So they're allowed to treat the adverts in the same way a trucking company treats the packing crates they transport. If anything illegal or unethical is happening, the default assumption is that they're not part of it.