Fiddler45

RIP Craig. Maestronet will miss you.

Just got a foot this weekend in Minnesota..expecting more today. Praying that will be it for the year.

I'm only in my mid 40s but my sentimentality is probably more suited for an earlier time. I've said for years, for many different reasons, that I wish I'd been born 50 years sooner.

I have noticed in the violin community (as well as other places; maybe it's just human nature) that if a violin is priced at say, $5,000, there is automatically a sense that it's really something special, whereas one that is priced at $750 that sounds and plays just as good is looked at with an air of "what's wrong with this that it's so cheap?" I think a lot of it is a status thing. I will agree that provenance will help resell an instrument, but I also wonder, if people would do a little research and shop around, maybe when they're ready to "move up" to the "next level" instruments, they wouldn't have to worry about getting the $5,000 back that they have invested in their "inferior" instrument.

I just get tired of seeing violins with price tags of $5,000 and up because of who made them, whether they sound good or not. I get that good sound is a matter of personal preference, but I've played dozens of violins in this range in shops that don't sound any better than $50 estate sale trade instruments that have been gone through and well set up.

The concept of refurbishing old trade violins and getting a fair price based on sound and playability usually doesn't go very far around here... so I'm glad there's another rebel on board.

There ya go. Thanks for taking the time to do the test run Don.

I'm not sure if Mike was playing when I saw them play live in 2012, but it was a great sounding fiddle, whoever it was. I was actually thinking about Andy Leftwich playing on a studio recording.

I'd have to argue these statements, to a point.. what genre of fiddle music requires (I know you didn't use that word, but I'm talking about today) the use of junky sounding fiddles? Just because that's what started a style doesn't mean that's what is preferable today, or even then; maybe that's all they could afford. Also, I disagree that a certain style requires a certain sound. Both Natalie McMaster and Ashley MacIsaac play Cape Breton? They are both great players. Natalie's fiddle, IMO, sounds good, and her husband's even better. Most times I've heard recordings of Ashley, I think his fiddle sounds terrible. Other styles also have a wide array of different sounding fiddles, depending on personal preference, I'm assuming. I'd be interested to know what properties supposedly are related to different styles of fiddling. I still think a good violin is a good violin, and what's "good" can be totally the taste of the player.

I don't know what A and B whatever resonance patterns are, so you'd have to elaborate on what that means. I just know what I like, tone wise.

A good violin is a good violin, but not all are cut out to be good fiddles. Likewise, a lot of great sounding instruments that are used as fiddles may not be the best for classical music..but each can be great, "non-junky" instruments. Some of my favorite sounding instruments heard on TV/movies/recordings that would probably sound good no matter what music was played on them include: whatever violin was used for the music on "The Red Violin", the intro to the Jeremy Brett series of "Sherlock Holmes", Ricky Skaggs' current fiddle player's instrument, and the violin in the movie "Kiss the Girls". These all have a full, rich tone, which would be suitable for about anything. The instruments that bother me are the ones with tons of midrange and high end, that sound squawky , for lack of better description. And there are a LOT of those. As Martin said, most violins don't sound very good.

I totally understand and agree. That's why I started finding more good quality instruments with the sound I liked when I stopped going to orchestral oriented shops. If I had wanted a "violiny" sound, they had dozens.

As to Peter's point about "a lot of fiddlers are very picky"....yes. Yes we are. Especially, I imagine, in the eyes of violin makers. Most makers build for orchestral use. Violins in orchestras are supposed to have a certain timbre of sound for their part in the score. The darker tones; that's what violas and cellos are for. So unless a maker is willing to go outside their bread and butter zone, the results probably won't vary too much. Fifteen years ago I was looking for a fiddle such as we are describing. I looked, and looked, and looked......and then looked some more. At many different violin shops. Even almost commissioned a maker to build me one, but then realized that if it wasn't right, I'd be stuck with it. Finally "settled" on one for $10,000 at a high end shop. Only years later, after getting into working on violins, did I realize that I never noticed many (if any!) Maggini models in my trials, and not many Guarneris. In my experience since, these are more commonly the models I, and a lot of fiddlers I know, prefer. Trouble is, the market is overwhelmingly oversaturated with Strad models. I would imagine the Strad is the model most makers adhere to. Since working on fiddles, I have set up plenty that are satisfactory to me tone wise, and a few that I like every bit as well as my expensive one. Most of them cost me under $500 and some sweat and elbow grease.

I can't say with absolute certainty, but being a fiddler myself, I would guess this would not be satisfactory. Unless a maker has produced many instruments already that have a darker "fiddly" sound, they are not very likely to arrive at the desired destination merely by messing with setup. You'd need a maker willing to try different body patterns, different archings, different graduations, maybe a larger bass bar, and when it's all said and done, not be stubborn about where the "correct location" of the sound post is. Oh, and probably also not slap a set of Dominants on it and call it good.

I concur with quite a few on here. It is very hard to find fiddles with the type of sound I am sure the op's customer is looking for. "Bassy" is how I have always described it. Trouble is, you usually lose clarity and bite if a fiddle is too "deep" sounding. In the rare cases you can find a fiddle that is not only pure and clear, but also possesses a very powerful, full low end, to the point where even the A and E have mellowed to sound even "deeper" yet still retain their clarity, they are a dream to play. Also concur that the Maggini model lends itself to this quite well.