Spelman

That sospiri can be a real ass at times

This is actually some good advice. Remember that there are *a lot* of folks looking for a "true steal." You may sacrifice several months/years(?) of enjoyable playing and development of your skills while hunting the unicorn everyone wants. How much are those months/years worth to you?

And somewhere, Padah Hound chuckles softly to himself...

BB, why do you not like Chinese instruments? It would seem that they might serve your students better than these broken down fiddles.

Big ol' crack in the back?

Make that $15 million...

It does

I should preface this with saying that you all have forgotten more about violins, violas, celli, etc. since you woke up this morning than I've ever known.But it just seems weird to me that that the guy who putatively invented the violin made some of the best in history. How did he (seemingly) absolutely nail it from the get-go? Are the oldest "truly a violin" instruments perhaps lost to history because AA was the first to produce/perfect a version of an existing instrument design? Making an instrument that people were willing to hold onto and maintain for centuries? A design that might have been relatively recent to him? Not saying that he didn't have mad skills but that the first is also among the best seems to run against likelihood.

The button and the frog look like nickel but the winding looks like it's tarnishing black? The frog and button are replacements maybe?

I have three fiddles with Boid d'Harmonie tailpieces, ebony, boxwood, and pernambuco (although purple pernambuco, not the brown of the OP). I like a lot, the pernambuco livens up the violin's tone, IME. Eric's stuff is a little on the pricey side but worth it. You should lube the tuners with a pencil though, they are kinda stiff out of the box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zatUernhzNw Not sure if I can embed Youtube videos here, otw, follow the link above for a laugh

Hey Zuger, you may want to get your meds adjusted, seems like the dosing is off

*wince*