Thank you for the kind comments. I am very pleased to say my daughter has won an audition with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She and her violin (my Opus 28) begin in the second violin section Fall of 2023.

Thanks for watching John. I appreciate the feedback.

Thanks for the lovely comment. I’ll pass your remarks along to my daughter as well!

@@djfwood did not know she is your daughter , feel even greater joy .great family .great results.

I am glad you found the video useful and you are right on to mention ergonomics, especially with respect to viola (and definitely cello too, which I can state with certainty after just finishing making my first!). There is even enough variation within violins, especially the shaping of the neck, to be a source of either ease, or unease, although sometimes it can simply be a case of what one is used to.

Great point! Violins are very standardized compared to violas, which can be all over the map: body size, body shape, vibrating string length (a biggie), even the depth of the sides has a big impact on playing comfort.

Thank you! I hope it proves useful to you.

Thanks Irene! Let's hope the cello I am making for you ends your search forever!

These are all excellent suggestions. Comparing instruments through recordings can be dicey though. True reproduction is very difficult to obtain through recording, so you end up comparing the recordings rather than the instruments.

Thanks very much John. If you are searching for a new instrument a wish you success.

Thanks Pete!

Thanks for the feedback. I am glad it was off interest to you.

For an upper level instrument, there must be a trial period. A week should be sufficient. It is a slow and inefficient way to try instruments and the possibility exists for the instrument to go out of adjustment in transit. But, sometimes, it is the only, or the most practical way to try an instrument.

Hah! The transaction will definitely involve some real money, but I'd never give a figure like that. You can definitely buy a not very good instrument for that much or a lot more; and you can definitely buy a very fine instrument for considerably less! Mine fall into the latter category.

Go sell a kidney. Good thing pianists don't have to go thru this. We can practice on a clunker at home and they'll have a grand piano waiting for us at the event. What I paid for my Piano gear is a fraction of what I paid for my violin gear. Not to mention constantly buying new strings and bow rehairs.

​@@djfwoodactually my favorite sounding violin was $2500. I regret not buying it now.

True enough, but to be fair, most pianists have to pay to move their instrument, or to have it tuned, not something string players have to pay out for 😊!

@@djfwood 🙂I play both so there's pros and cons for both. I just get bitter sometimes but I do love violin.

Thanks for your comments although I don’t agree with you in the context of looking for a professional-level instrument. Wolfs are often associated with particularly resonant instruments. Professional players are adept at minimizing wolfs and see it as a trade off. There are many adjustments to the instrument and devices that may be applied that alter or mute the wolf, but often at cost of muting other desirable aspects of the instrument’s tone. In my experience, getting a strong, playable tone right next to the bridge is a function of a particular type of set up rather than an indicator of the resonant possibilities, or playability of that instrument. Your video features a fine player showcasing, a lovely violin, but it addresses neither of the points that you brought up in your comment.

@@djfwood what I meant was, that a lot of instruments can sound “nice” and “open” while playing mono string passages closer to the fingerboard (which is how most “professional players” play nowadays anyway) such as simple scales and/or intros to violin concerto’s, but they will crack and suffer (be almost unplayable) for a solo-like player and more advanced repertoire involving double-stops, chords etc. The criteria that you propose is for beginners and professional orchestral musicians and it doesn’t cover a lot of the requirements for higher-end players (which I think it should, even though they are a minority).

You raise good points! There is a lot of difference between a beginner and a professional orchestral player. I don’t think a beginner needs to consider, but a fraction of what it is addressed here. What is presented here is a distillation of experiences and feedback from a number of professional orchestral and quartet players. In personal talks, with a highest-level soloist regarding what they needed in an instrument, and referring to their own Strad, they described a narrow bandwidth, piercing quality that excels at projection. It was not necessary to play near the bridge to obtain this quality of sound, which is otherwise more often the case. I feel most professional violinists are not looking for this in their every day instrument. I have not found that an instrument’s ability to play very close to the bridge without cracking indicated it does other things well, only that it can produce that tonal color, and granted, that is important in itself, and should not be overlooked.