Victor Roman

Should that be the case, your kid either plays very simple things or he/she is exerting an unreasonable amount of finger pressure. The idea one picks up any violin / any string height and plays the Chaconne competently has no bearing on reality.

"They" will find the fifths are all over the place, for starters.

I would not feel stupid because I never thought and never would I think of joining amateur chemical or mathematical orchestras. Anyway, best wishes from myself and sorry if I offended your sensitivities. My intention was to give optimal advice not "feel good" advice. Again, I apologize.

I would like to come up with an useful piece of advise but without more detail, I can not. I do not understand why you can't read the music at performance tempo - music is right in front of you. Are you having difficulty identifying the notes ? I suppose you do not need to transpose anything and the music is in the usual key... Anyway, I wish you the best of luck !

Mr Swan, thank you very much for so patiently putting up with myself. And one of two others. Also, many thanks towards Mr. Holmes. Question : tone aside, are your prices cast in stone or there is some space for negotiations ?

Thank you very much. This will prove helpful in the future, I am pretty sure.

I do not quite understand : are you trying to memorize the score ? That would be too much effort. You can not get lost if you follow the music while reading the score.

I do not see any similarity with megilp. (I used to paint as a hobby.)

The best way to work out this question is by trying. If the string is too low the player does not feel enough resistance from the fingerboard and will quickly learn to step too lightly on an F with the result the string keeps vibrating under the finger. If the string is too high the player feels enough resistance, presses harder and also more of the nail region gets involved. Some players learn themselves to play "on the nail" all the time. Helps with intonation because it stops the string dead but same time produces a nasty quality in the tone. From what I read here Mr. Michael Darnton seems to have the right idea. Basically, making the violin too comfortable in the first half position might not be the best thing. Same way, having strings too high bridge side will eventually lead to some form of injury as our tendons become calcified with age.

The crack was there since the violin was originally made. Once it was fixed, the tone issue vanished. "That" tone issue, not something else. Asking for a lower price because one does not QUITE like the tone might be a ploy. Why would it be a "silly" one ???? Care to explain ??? What next ? Not paying the asking price is immoral ? surmise verb /səˈmʌɪz/ suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it.

That is sometimes, true. Most of the time when age (and very fancy provenance) is a factor.

I think they are perfectly well prepared for these objections. I also think sometimes cash flow might be an issue. Some dealers sit on huge stock of instruments, cleverly purchased and with vanishingly low chances of unloading them "retail". "Don't buy it if you don't like it" might apply for the cure for cancer but if a dealer advertises himself as hard nosed and inflexible he's simply giving away market to the hungry ones. The ones who figured out that in order to carry on trading you need the convert old stock in cash into order to buy new stock. There are way more violins out there than people interested in buying them.

The reason he bought it was because his Conservatory teacher had a very nicely sounding violin by the same maker, from the same year and looking almost identical. The violin had a variable tone : fine some days, bad in others. The crack was a wood defect and was not found by a couple of makers who tried to fix the tone issue.

I have little experience in buying musical instruments but I have a huge amount of experience in buying cars and real estate. The ASKING price is meant for a buyer who has zero objections, is in front of the seller and has little or no alternatives, all in a seller's market. A seller must be a complete moron if he asks for less than the max he reasonably expects to get and if he is not prepared to close the deal for slightly and bearably, less. There is no shortage of violins as far as I can gather. Cash now is more valuable than illusions later.

I understand perfectly the issues yourself and Mr. Swan took the time to clarify and I thank you for that. Basically, all I tried to say is that there are exceptions. Nothing more.