bean_fidhleir

I think that's just raw neck, Kathy, not a fboard

It looks to me as though it's been completely stripped of varnish. I hope it's only a trick of the light, but....

I find it attractive, though of course unconventional. Did you use some particular principle to choose the f-hole shapes? I note that the lower part agrees with the curve of the ribs (or seems to from the photo'd angle) but the upper part doesn't. Was the shape chosen for its own sake, and the agreement merely accidental, or is there a principle behind it, or what? Enquiring minds!

I just looked at the seller's 'handle' -- I seem to recall a 'Mariam' operating out of Germany a year or three ago. 'Mariam' is the Arabic version of Miriam/Marian/Mary, which is why it stuck in my mind. I shouldn't think there are too many Mariams selling fiddles on ebay.

Even ebay itself, hardly notable for its caring attitude toward buyers, warns folk not to pay in the non-rescindable ways that this guy wants.

Mahogany?

Do the f-holes and corners look Brescian-ish to anyone else? The f-holes should look like Stainer's at that time and place and with that arching, shouldn't they? Or am I out of my tiny mind as per usual?

I have no right to an opinion about the violin, but I think I've run into that seller before and was not pleased.

quote: Originally posted by: lupe0824 I recently watched "Celtic Women" program on TV. One of the girls played the violin. I noticed that she held the bow kinda different ( its different to me cause I've never seen it held like that before). It looked like she held it about a couple inches above from the frog. Is this correct? Many fiddlers hold it "choked" like that. I think it's because holding it the way a violinist does makes the bow feel unbalanced and too long, since we only use a tiny bit of its length. That's how it feels to me, anyway. Whenever I hold mine down by the frog, I always wish the bow were six inches shorter.

quote: [And therein lies the contradiction. How do we define a good pedigree? An old violin that is authenticated to be made by a good maker by having a reasonable history that we can trace and is in good condition. And how do we define a good maker? He made quality instruments that sounds excellent on the whole. So you can say that pedigree is partly based on sound, and the rest on age and provenance. And yet, sound is subjective. It does seem as though sound is getting in there by the back door somehow, doesn't it. But actually it isn't. We really define a good maker by the willingness of people to buy her/his instruments for large sums. Which is a quantifiable measure. The players who buy them say it's for their sound, but we know that isn't so because some large %age of those same players would turn away from a battered, no-name instrument from, oh, Kraków even if the thing sounded as though it had been made by angels.

Gong xi fa cai/Gong hei fat choi to all from a sugelan de long

What's interesting to me is that, while I can just about make out the 'Colling' part in that closeup, I can't for the life of me see 'wood' following it at all. From here it almost looks as though it ends in -ato Pity we can't have a really close closeup, with wood pores, scratches, Uncle Tom Cobleigh, and all.

I don't think the brand can have been done by hand with a stylus. Looking at the image, it seems consistent with a professionally engraved brass stamp, heated but then applied unevenly so that only the bottoms of the letters were captured. (not that that is important in the greater scheme of things)

quote: Originally posted by: cmsunday It's really disheartening when everywhere you go, you encounter some person who obviously hates you and wants to discredit you. Physically, it takes a toll. ... I have also good relationships in my community and many scores of successful and happy students. And yet people will stand by (like on Google) and watch me ripped apart, and say nothing. Connie, consider whether this individual might be a little crazy. As you describe it, her behavior certainly does not sound to me like that of someone who's in good emotional condition. Does it you? I'm not talking about crazy enough to be diagnosed and medicated, but unstable enough that other people don't want to mix in and maybe get her on THEIR case. Couldn't that explain the silence you're experiencing from other people? You have years and years of successful practice behind you already, with many well-satisfied students and their families. You are a proven success, and have no reason to value some stranger's criticism above the happiness that radiates back to you from your students. For all you know, this woman might be like a couple of men I knew years ago. They had big, impressive art-school credentials, but had to work outside the field because, frankly, they weren't very good artists. All they had from their years at school was the credential, not the skill. And they bad-mouthed successful-but-uncredentialed people at every turn because of how bitter they felt about it.

As far as penetrating/rust-inhibiting oils go, 'Tuf Glide' is one used by jewellers and watchmakers. The viscosity is so low it's hard to believe there's oil involved, it comes from New Hampster (Sentry Solutions, Contoocook, 603-746-5687), and I've found it's excellent for getting in and unsticking threads no matter how fine (or, I suppose, coarse, though silversmithing rarely involves coarse threads).

In addition to the good advice from everyone else, perhaps you could take the catalog to the shop you bought from and express your puzzlement to the shopkeeper--that you're hoping that his price was twice as high for some substantial reason, and could he please help you understand what that substantial reason is.

Was it you who mailed ebay about him?

I think the consensus I've seen here over the years--you might be able to check the archives--is that they have a mediocre sound.

"One of the problems though, is that one ideally needs to use a maginifying glass for this work, my eyes are not able to focus on such small details even with 3x lenses." An alternative to a head-mounted magnifier might be a Dazor lamp http://www.dazor.com/illuminated-magnifier-lamp.html They last forever (I've only had to have one small repair on mine in 40 years) and I find the magnification sufficient to allow painting tiny miniatures and doing fiddly jewellery. Just a thought.

quote: Originally posted by: jbgilm There has ben a lot of inflation, but the country has also gotten significantly wealthier snce 1977. I understand the point you're making, but it would be more accurate to say that the wealthiest 1% have become significantly wealthier. That's much less true for most of the rest of us --and completely untrue for the least wealthy 20%, who have definitely lost ground-- according to the stats collected by the feds and reported by Prof. Edward Wolff of NYU.

quote: Originally posted by: Richf [/iAccording to Al Stancel, there was a machine that produced most of the lion head scrolls that you see. I can't imagine how it works. But the total uniformity of the heads showing up from the late 1800s to early 1900s convinces me he was right. There may have been multiple machines or perhaps just one factory, sending scrolls out across Germany and France. That's why most of the lion head scrolls are on cheap (aka "fancy") violins. If Al was right, then I think we can now say who bought the machine (or one of them): Gliga! http://images.andale.com/img/i...yrolean.jpg&marketId=1

His given name appears to be Károly (Charles).

Is the median income really $60K these days? I thought it was around $44

Ehrhardt shows a close relative of this fiddle on p. 69 of book 1. The ad he shows is from 1900, and the violin is type "no. 77". It cost $6.40 when new, and a copy in mint condition was worth $300 or less in 1977. Similar ones are shown again in several places in book 2, including 1898 and 1910 ads by Wurlitzer, where the price was $9.00. So I think the seller made a big mistake, if that $1200 offer was legitimate.

What a fascinating man he must be. Claudio, do you happen to have learned whether he's keeping a written record of what he's learning from all his work? It would be truly terrible if all that knowledge were to die with him in 15 or 20 years.