Spelman

On one of my fiddles, I switched to pernambuco from ebony for reasons of tone. That made a noticeable and pleasant change tonally and fortunately worked well with the varnish.

" I was told that based on the locations of the stains and wear from hand oils that this violin most likely belonged to a professional orchestra musician." Lordy, never quite seen verbiage like that before, lol.

At the risk of asking a dumb question, does anyone recognize the maker of any of the violins sporting these chinrests?

Hey, someone just paid 11,000USD for a bunch of grapes... https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/japan-grapes-expensive-fruit-intl-hnk/index.html

And here I thought it read "Und jetzt, drei Mass"

Manfio with the truth here. FWIW, I've recently fallen in love with the Warchal Timbres.

A piezo is going to give you the "angry bee in a jar" sound no matter what. If the player wants an acoustic sound then a mike is the best/only way to go. The best compromise is a blender system which is both a pickup and a mike, you then dial in as much piezo as you need to defeat feedback. Speaking with Sean Smyth some years ago, he swore by a soundpost mounted pickup. I don't remember what brand he was using but here's one website selling them: https://www.violorama.co.uk/soundpost-pickup.php Barbera makes the best sounding, bridge-mounted piezos that I've heard but their bridge is quite chunky and I'm guessing your client would not be happy with the resultant acoustic sound. https://www.barberatransducers.com/violinpickups.html My favorite pre-amp is the Fishman Platinum Stage: https://www.fishman.com/products/series/platinum/platinum-stage-eq-analog-preamp/ Good luck!

Sweet ride

Sort of, they had basically taken the front engine layout as far as it could go and were getting left behind by mid engine cars. Favorite car of mine was a 1979 Chevette, 90hp, <2000lbs, RWD, manual steering, manual brakes. Could not break that thing, great for off roading, had a towing hitch...

Do you use a Russian or a French bow hand?

Johnson String Instrument is a reputable place.

The bow? Umm...it's not exactly my favorite element in the painting but I like the cubist riff that the tip and frog are inverse and you can see the end of the button and the flat of the hair when looking at the side of the bow. Was there something particular about the bow that caught your eye?

That Chagall is one of my favorite paintings. I love the f-holes on this Picasso, my next tattoo.

I started teaching on a not-so-great violin. I got a much nicer fiddle and it has made me a much better teacher. If you try to show a student something and the violin can't do it or won't without great effort, then it makes it much harder to effectively communicate your lesson.

Most of the time, if you try to mooch, it won't work. All of my free string sets have come without my asking. (YELLING USUALLY DOESN'T WORK EITHER.)