dpappas

agreed, a maker would have centered the brand.

You can only have so many "eureka" moments before failing to producing anything real. And, yes, his most recent "secret of Stradivari" was pre-pandemic.

I agree, Martin, that the money isn't really the point. And if you can buy and sell strads of this caliber, you've got other money tied in safer things. Fulton's story is interesting and his collection impressive. I need to read his book at some point.

If I had that much money, I wouldn't drop it on a violin even if i had hundreds of millions more. As much as I love the instrument and its history, it's too much money for something so fragile, easy to steal/lose, etc.

Given what he paid for it, and the amount of time he owned it, the S&P500 outperformed the investment by about $5M, but I doubt Fulton cared much about that, he's not hurting for money.

Not sure if this is the correct forum, since it was a direct sale, but the Baron Knoop strad sold for $23M. https://www.thestrad.com/news/record-breaker-baron-knoop-stradivari-violin-sells-for-23-million/19394.article

Will I've not seen any sonic differences on spectrum analysis (playing semitone bowed scales or bridge impact) with the korferrest model 2. The same goes for looped recordings with and without that shoulder rest. BUT for me it's incredibly comfortable, and that has a bigger effect on the sound than anything else. As has been said before, these are personal comfort choices and that comfort is a bigger impact on tone than anything else, probably.

I have a Mag-ic probe and it's pretty straightforward to use. It's not cheap, but how much is your time worth rigging up something else?

OP, I agree. And to each their own. But I do play with a SR but I hold the instrument on the collarbone and with my left hand, using my jaw/chin only for support during down shifts. The SR provides stability and lets me play longer. Since I broke my shoulder last year, I need the support.

Sorry for the delay! Rondos, PIs, and Rondo Golds are to me very "pure" sounding strings. The Dynamos are very textured, you get a lot of grit to the sound, which I like. For the Rondo Gold, and Rondo, I hear this midrange "honk" that I find unpleasant under the ear. The Rondo Gold are definitely better in that regard than regular Rondo. For pure, powerful strings you can't be PI. For textured, powerful strings, there's a reason Dynamo strings are getting so much attention these days.

I did not like the Rondo Golds. But I also don't like Rondos. The Rondo Golds are a high-quality product, no doubts there, but I just didn't like the core of the sound--it was sterile to me. I prefer dynamos but they are completely different animal altogether. I suspect people will like the Rondo Golds overall, they just didn't do the trick for me.

Michael thanks for sharing. Interesting story. I wonder how many people were taken buying this instrument for what it isn’t.

At what point is a GdG no longer so? How much must remain intact/original before an instrument is no longer considered by the maker? I know that's subjective, so I'm asking rhetorically. For me, the box is the magic and the scroll and f-holes are the art. I would want top, ribs, back, and scroll to be original.

Since I first posted the link they have removed the sentence “copy by John Lott”. Weird.

Michael et al., thanks for your expertise. I stumbled across it and there were so many questions about it. I think a seller is definitely struggling with a valuation issue. Bought it as X, and now it's a Y.