MANFIO

If you are a professional musician you need a tool for making music, not an investment. A violin can be both a tool and a investment, but in this case you will spend a lot of money.

No problem!

Reading Euro Peluzzi's "Tecnica degli Antichi Liutai Italiani" drives me mad, I am not a scientist-like maker... But the idea of "focus" is interesting. As far as I know this "camisega" is mentioned only by Euro, I have never seen it mentioned in other books or manuscripts. Euro's and Sacconi's books were published in the same decade, there were few violin books in that time, and their approach is so diferent! www.manfioviolas.com

I am self-taught, but had early music and woodworking training. A tough way, I was young, no internet, information came only from books. A good number of makers we love today had no teachers. Life in Italy was hard, and they had to struggle to survive working as a violin maker, player, cooper, teacher, etc. Stablishing yourself as a self taught maker today will be hard, since the market is highly competitive. Learning restoration work in a high level as a self taught it is almost impossible, I think. In general, biographies will not mention "self-taught" directly, but just mention that the maker "got some advice from the Bisiachs..." (in Eric Blot's books we read "prese qualche consiglio da..." This is a small list of self taught makers or "diletanti" (at least in the initial of their career), and they represent an exception when we consider the number of such makers: Giovanni Battista Guadagnini Stefano Scarampella Sergio Peresson Andrea Postacchini Gaetano Sgarabotto Otello Bignami Romolo Parmeggiani Gaetano Pareschi Alberto Guerra Giuseppe Pedrazzini Celeste Faroti; Luigi Bertelli Andrea Cortese Gaetano Chiocchi Valentino de Zorzi (an important florentine maker that started making violins when he was 40 years old!) Anibal Fagnola Emidio Celani Howard Needham said me he is a self-taught maker too. Some say Lorenzo Storioni had no master too, as well as Giuseppe Rocca. The ever increasing prices of their instruments is a question of market, and after some decades, market disregards formal training.

Small 15.5 (39.6 cm) viola "Passacaglia", sounds darn good, not as a small viola! Powerful C string!

Ciao Alessandro! Wolves on the open A string are rather common in violas. You could try tuning it one tone lower and higher to see what happens. If it disappear you can try possibly a different A string with lower or higher tension. Perhaps a change in the string afterlength too. You could try other brands of A strings too. With my violas I leave a thicker region under the f holes, in the form of a half circle (mezza monetina) with 5 mm. In bocca al lupo! www.manfioviolas.com

I imagine that the presure of the arching protector is not all that big, if properly used. What I did recently is making my table linings stronger (in the lower and upper treble side) and with Brazilian cedar (Spanish cedar), with good results. www.manfioviolas.com

Sacconi mentioned the arching protector in his book "I Segreti di Stradivari" back in 1971.

Esther Apituley is one of my players in Amsterdam since 2012. You can listen to this all Bach album here

Thanks! www.manfioviolas.com

Some varnish.

Small 15.5" (39.6 cm) viola "Passacaglia", warm orange varnish, I love the sound and look, I find this one very special, does not sound as a small viola.

I apply it all over the instrument indeed.

I met some guys from Thomastik in the 50th International Viola Congress in Paris last January. One of them played the viola quite well. He tried some of my violas and kept the Evahs (with a Larsen A) I usually use in some. With others he tried some of Thomastik strings with really great tone results (Rondo, Domnant Pro and Dymano). These guys know what they do!