A432

The missing link in the German-Venitian connection is Mathias Alban and his family/followers in Tyrol.

The one on the right looks very pretty. Any chance of showing that whole fiddle, or at l3ast top/side/back ?

Nathan -- please disregardvwhat I said. Seeing the 3xample picture makes me realize I had misc9nstrued what you were describing. Pre-morning coffee posting impulses will be scrutinized more closely. Ageing is an adventure

Sacconi said that the sound of a viol8n with this problem would never focus. I've always wondered wbout that, because tnere seem to be any number of old, off-brand 'cells and violas like that and people are happy with them.

Start with it being stretchable before breaking (the opposite of brittle).

Possibly reformulated from one extreme to the other in response to crIticism?

FWIW: with respect to arching: Although British great Albert Sammons went through fiddles liike snack nibbles, the good one he kept, lifelong, and used for important concerts (including his iconic recording of the Elgar concerto) was a Stainer-pattern Goffriller.

Repeating request for stick wood identification. Somebody here has to know. Stick length (or hair length) please. Looks oddly too long, even for English period bows (variable)

Does anybody recognise the wood ?

Logic, although maybe comforting, is futlle in the face of experience. I sat next to a guy for several years with a Markie box I could have sworn was a Testore, had I not seen it. And a nice one. Mr. Swann, who knows a thing or two about the fiddle market, was (maybe still is) offering an exceotionally fine whodunnit at a price that surprised me. I also recall a Millstein master class where the pupil was playing a nearly black old whodunnit that M remarked was, however improbably, a first class instrument. How many of your big dogs regularly play new fiddles without anyone suspecting it ?

The bridge feet gizmo is a Pittsburgh thing. Benjamin Phillips used to put a thin slice of cork between the top and the bridge to tone town treble-y instruments.

The ivory face plate of the head is German, FWW.

At least back in antiquity (pre-1980) when I was doing luthier work in a shop, the best bridges were made by one of the Gutter family members. Hans loved them, and the shop owner, a pupil of his for years @ UNH, treasured the stash of them he bought when the Wurlitzer shop inventory was auctioned off. They were light in color and not strikingly figured. It wasca source of anger that Gutter, making his one at a time, of quality wood, could never get enough for his to rise above a near hand-to-mouth existence. The Auberts, even back then, were vividly figured from soaking them in horse urine. For some resson these were everywhere, it seemed. Not that many people back then knew, or likely cared. Hardly anybody fussed over what was typically a five-minute job for five or ten dollars. FWIW

Thank you. The f-holes (especially their placement) were throwing me. Makes sense now.

Who made the 1790 fiddle Jeffrey ?