
The Greatest Violin No One’s Ever Heard - pepys
http://lithub.com/the-greatest-violin-no-ones-ever-heard/
======
beat
I kind of wonder how it would actually sound at this point. As a guitarist who
has played a lot of older instruments (some upwards of 100 years), I find that
_getting played_ is critical to the health and tone of a guitar. A decades-old
guitar that is in mint condition probably sounds like crap. But a guitar that
has been played intensely, even if only for a few years, can sound really
great.

"Break-in period" is certainly widely believed among guitarists, and I believe
it myself (based on the experience of owning new guitars and playing them
until broken in), although it's near impossible to measure. The instruments
seem to change noticably in both tone and feel as they get played.

My favorite instruments generally are upwards of 30 years old and have been
played extensively. I had the pleasure of playing a 50 year old Gibson SG
recently, and it was fantastic - far better than any modern SG I've played.
Why is that? It's just wood, metal, and glue. It's not made any better than a
new SG. So I think age and playing really matter.

Beyond that, my own instruments seem "angry" if I don't play them for months
on end. They don't like just sitting there. This is, of course, a very
animist, non-scientific approach to the issue, but it seems very real to me.

~~~
iheartmemcache
That 50 year old Gibson SG is definitely at least a partial case case of
survivor bias. All the less-well built ones that came off the production line
with neck-warps and dead-frets have long been tossed out by the owner. Though,
I bet off-the-line, the ratio of 'well built' to 'not well built' guitars was
significantly higher when Gibson was still privately owned.

The other factor is I'm sure back when Gibson and Martin were US-made, there
was a certain amount of QA that went into each unit that went out the door. I
know some fine men who make their living off craft furniture for the
bourgeoisie and every unit is meticulously inspected. I'm sure even if they
attained commercial success, they'd ensure a base level of quality that a MNC
like Ikea or West Elm probably doesn't have. In the same way you have an
emotional attachment to your instruments, those instrument craftsmen/women
have a similar bond/sense of pride.

Also, as a woodworker, I can tell you that there are so many contributing
factors to wood, ranging from completely obvious spruce vs cherry vs sikta, to
more subtle things like where the tree was harvested from, access to water,
the way it was cut (quarter-sawn? flat? did the craftsman just select
whichever was cheapest?), the way it was cured, in what environment, and for
how long. These all contribute to the way they age, the way they cut. It's not
unlike wine vintages and variations (which, incidentally, have a fetishized
community, but certainly an amateur like myself can identify the difference
between two bottles of the same grape and vintage, but of a different region).
New SG's are produced in an assembly line with the cheapest acceptable
materials, rather than having some skilled tradesman who went down to 4
different lumberyards spending 6 weeks picking the best wood stock for that
years production.

~~~
beat
I don't think the QA was better then. There's tremendous variability in those
older guitars. Arguably, the wood quality was better, but top makers today are
still getting their hands on great wood. It's just more expensive.

One of my favorites is a well-played 1980 Tokai. In its day, it was a "cheap
guitar", considered inferior to American instruments, but it's magical. It's
better than Fender Custom Shops I've played - but I imagine 35 years from now,
they'll be much better.

------
lmm
I was never a great violinist, but this fetishization of old instruments is
part of what turned me away. I refuse to believe that we can't produce
instruments as good as those of yesteryear - and indeed, no expert can tell a
true Stradivari from the best modern instruments in a blind listening test.

~~~
rquantz
The classical world is more diverse than people seem to think. Most string
players I know play on modern instruments, made within the last hundred years.
Likewise actual musicians don't idolize young prodigies – both of these things
are marketing phenomena that the actual artists generally oppose.

That said, the idea that there's no difference between a great old instrument
and a modern one is just as fallacious. Perhaps as a not great violinist you
never got to the point where you got to find out, but there are qualities of
an instrument that have nothing to do with sound. The fact that a Strad costs
$5 million and an Iizuka costs $27,000 is ludicrous, yes. But the great old
instruments are still around for a reason.

~~~
iheartmemcache
30k for a hand-crafted instrument that you'll use professionally is quite
reasonable. A skilled laborer spent somewhere between building that instrument
for ranging between ~3 -> 18 months. Every stroke of his chisel was dedicated
to the production of that instrument. Every pull of his rasp. As a (subpar for
the time I've spent in the shop, but acceptable compared to the average bear)
woodworker, I can respect the labor that went into it. I'm not saying that
everyone should buy at that level (e.g 30k), but if you're going to pay $150k
for an education at Julliard or Berklee, $30k isn't unreasonable for something
you're professionally going into. (For the hobbyist or student, you can
"almost-there" apprentice-crafted string instruments for under 10k that will
have proper action which won't contribute to bad-form habits.) I'd imagine
most people here have spent well over that on Macbooks and iPhones alone,
which are hobby purchases that have lost 80% of their value within 3 years.
You can retain most of the value on a good instrument[1] and if you're lucky
it might even appreciate in value[2].

I think it's commonly accepted amongst collectors that you're buying a Strad
because it's a Strad. They're not buying it for it's sound any more than one
would buy an 1894 Patek Philippe because it keeps time. (A 20 dollar quartz
Timex does just as well.) You're buying a piece of history. A piece of art. In
the case of a watch, you're buying a piece of a combination between
history/art and engineering. Watch this[3] to see the engineering beauty in it
all. If you're further interested, watch this traditionally trained German[4]
to see how delicate[5], how precise, how intricate his movements are, despite
having lost the steady hand he had at 35, he regains the fluid motion in
certain strokes.

[1] Humidity control, minimize temperature fluxuation, peg maintenance, etc.
Just the basics - you don't have to baby it, but obviously don't neglect it
either.

[2] I don't know what the current scene is like, but take the 1960s Yamaha
FG180's which were basically thought of "junkers" you'd buy your 8 year old
for Christmas. A mint Red Label with no neck warpage can get 3 or 4k easily.

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OViP9AR2HE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OViP9AR2HE)

[4] Or Swiss (?) I don't know German well enough to distinguish regional
accents, so he could be from the German-speaking region of Switzerland.

[5]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGygB7BMsQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGygB7BMsQ)

~~~
rquantz
In case it wasn't clear, I was referring to the price difference as ludicrous.
I have an Iizuka viola and it's worth every penny.

------
jvandonsel
Here's a double-blind test of modern vs Strad violins:

[http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/blind-tested-soloists-
un...](http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/blind-tested-soloists-unable-to-
tell-stradivarius-violins-from-modern-instruments/)

(spoiler alert: a modern violin won)

------
_nato_
Just wanted to share a sentiment from a living luthier that I like.

Samuel Zygmuntowicz (a modern maker) has remarked, Strad made new violins.
It's a reminder that age has little to do with the quality in some fine
antique instruments. Strad's craft to fabricate brand-spanking-new violins
made him quite a wealthy man (because they were fine instruments then, as they
are now).

