Most expensive new instruments?

[PhilipKT]

2 minutes ago, ClefLover said:

Do you still use the nickel for a wolf tone eliminator?  If so, how do you attach it?  One of my son’s cellos has a wolf that can’t seem to be eliminated from standard weights. The 5 gram nickel idea seems to be something that may work.

David Caron(Sorry, everybody, there’s that name again) glues a little clip onto the nickel, and it clips onto the C and G strings. David says the C string afterlength should be tuned to F#, but it hasn’t worked that way for me. Before I play I check for a wolf and if I find one I just tune the after length to the wolf note du jour.

[Jim Bress]

4 minutes ago, ClefLover said:

Do you still use the nickel for a wolf tone eliminator?  If so, how do you attach it?  One of my son’s cellos has a wolf that can’t seem to be eliminated from standard weights. The 5 gram nickel idea seems to be something that may work.

Huh, I looked it up.  An unworn U.S. nickel weighs exactly 5 grams, and a post-1983 penny weighs exactly 2.5 grams.  Probably the cheapest low gram calibration weights on the market.

[nathan slobodkin]

17 minutes ago, PhilipKT said:

Oh Martin, I may very well be David’s biggest fan, but you’d understand a bit more if you understood the agony I went through with my first cello. It was being eaten, it had worms, and not just a few, and when I told my teacher about it he did nothing. He sold me that wormeaten cello. He Told my parents to give him a bunch of money and he would find an excellent cello for us during his annual trip to Europe, and such was the power of his personality and our own naïveté, that we did so. And he got me a nameless cello, worth not a third of what we had paid, that was being eaten. I used to have nightmares about opening my cello case to find a pile of sawdust. In 1986 I played the Shostakovich concerto on a televised master class with Rostropovich, and I borrowed a colleague’s cello because mine was so inadequate, and after my performance, when I took my place in the audience, my teacher cursed at me for not using my own wormy cello. I do not mean to praise David too much, but you would be probably a little bit more merciful with me if you understood those years of agony.

The cello I have isn’t the best in the world, it may not even be the best in my orchestra( actually, unless the guy with the De Barbieri is playing, yes it is) but it is a constant source of joy to me, And every time I play I remember the difference between what I had, and what I have.

But I take your point and I’ll be less effusive in future.

mea culpa 

The whole business of teachers selling instruments to their students is pretty questionable and there are certainly many makers who take advantage of opportunities in that vein. I am aware of instruments which were given to a teacher to sell on the basis of setting an inflated price and then splitting the money.. I think that most of the makers who get top dollar deserve their success but there are a lot of  mediocre makers who are taking advantage of some pretty aggressive marketing tricks.

[PhilipKT]

42 minutes ago, nathan slobodkin said:

The whole business of teachers selling instruments to their students is pretty questionable and there are certainly many makers who take advantage of opportunities in that vein. I am aware of instruments which were given to a teacher to sell on the basis of setting an inflated price and then splitting the money.. I think that most of the makers who get top dollar deserve their success but there are a lot of  mediocre makers who are taking advantage of some pretty aggressive marketing tricks.

Yes I know, and almost all of my colleagues who are willing to talk about it do exactly the same. My website has a couple of stories about the subject, but my teacher was incredibly aggressive about it. I’m sure he didn’t intend to find me a worm-eaten cello, he just wanted to get something as cheap as possible and pocket the balance. But he was one of those teachers who was never, ever, ever wrong.. As a case in point, when I played the Shostakovich for Rostropovich, in the second movement, I played the false harmonics an octave too high, and my teacher had never noticed. At the master class, Rostropovich pointed it out to me, and I asked incredulously,” you mean I’ve been playing it wrong for two years?” And he laughed and said, “yes.”

At my next lesson, my teacher, told me he had wanted me to play an octave too high on purpose so I could,  “work on my thumb position.” He refused to admit that he just had not noticed. He even continued the charade with another student, Insisting that he also learn the false harmonics an octave too high.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned as a teacher is to do everything exactly the opposite of how he did it.

[nathan slobodkin]

Unfortunately many teachers don't really know enough about instruments to give good advice even with the best of intentions. While their opinions on sound may be invaluable their opinions on condition, authenticity or artistic merit are often wrong and easily influenced by dealers or makers prioritizing  the bottom line. 

[reg]

12 hours ago, PhilipKT said:

he whole business of teachers selling instruments to their students is pretty questionable and there are certainly many makers who take advantage of opportunities in that vein. I am aware of instruments which were given to a teacher to sell on the basis of setting an inflated price and then splitting the money.. I think that most of the makers who get top dollar deserve their success but there are a lot of  mediocre makers who are taking advantage of some pretty aggressive marketing tricks.

Ditto - in fact one of my pet rants!

One teacher in particular has for years sent pupils in to select violins on approval for her to assess.

...and then 'surprise, surprise' just by chance one of her older pupils is upgrading and just happens to have an instrument to sell!

Parents are totally taken in and return the 'apro' violins plus the one they have just bought from the teacher.

Overpriced, often serious junk, scruffy, and needing a complete service, strings, bridge, the lot

Grrr

[PhilipKT]

On 6/7/2019 at 1:25 AM, nathan slobodkin said:

Unfortunately many teachers don't really know enough about instruments to give good advice even with the best of intentions. While their opinions on sound may be invaluable their opinions on condition, authenticity or artistic merit are often wrong and easily influenced by dealers or makers prioritizing  the bottom line. 

Nathan, I just saw this note, I think, and I want to chime in and say you are exactly correct. The best thing a teacher can do is admit that they know very little or nothing. That’s where I am. The best thing I can do is start them on the path of education about stuff, recommend the kid look for somebody honest, play lots of stuff to learn, check condition, ask questions, research prices as much as possible, and shop slowly.

eventually they have to make their own decisions, but my goal is to help them be as informed as possible.

[Ingrid Matthiessen]

On 6/1/2019 at 2:14 AM, Keviar said:

Christian Tetzlaff?

Yup