Tools of my trade (part 2)

This is the next chapter in my ongoing series about the musical instruments that are the partners in my life of work. The first chapter about my Baroque Violin and bow can be found here.

Today, I'm showing off my Baroque Viola. It is a really nice instrument made by an Australian maker in the early 2000's. It is instantly recognisable due to emerald green markings in between the double purflings around the edges and at the tailpiece.

Unfortunately, the back has a bit of cosmetic damage to the varnish. This was from a tour to China, where it was humid and stinking hot. The sweat from my shoulder left a mark, but it should be an easy repair, however I haven't had the time to send it to the luthier. It also doesn't affect the sound either, but I really should do it before the naked wood is exposed.

The Viola itself is a joy to play. Easy to get around, and with a deep mellow tone. Recently it had a minor repair done, as during a very exuberant up bow, I managed to connect with one of the corners with the bow and lift the front plate away from the body. Luckily, no lasting damage as the instruments are designed to come apart relatively easily.

It also has a large nail, joining the neckpiece to the body. This was the method employed in the Baroque era but long since discarded. I guess that iron and wood are not good long term partners. However, this has caused me no end of grief on security screenings, when the nail shows up on the scanner.

The first bow that is partnered with this instrument is a cheap arse no name factory line bow. It is an interesting story, I used to have a really nice expensive bow. However, in a concert I dropped it and it shattered.

So, I needed an emergency bow to fill in at short notice. The luthier that I went to had a whole bunch (over 20) of these cheap Chinese roughly made views. So I toch, fijne I party a few euros for one of these and then I will look for something better later. Of the whole set, only this one was any good, the rest were terrible. Over time, it had turned out to be one of my best bows,luck of the draw!

The other paired bow is a Classical era bow (Ironwood) made by a Dutch maker. You can see it has a different shape and style to the Baroque views that have previously shown. This gives different strengths and weaknesses that better suit the era of music it was designed for.

I had needed one of these bows at relatively short notice. The bow maker made up a few for me to try and in the end I settled on this one. When you have many bows to try one after the other, it is amazing the difference in sounds that they can draw out of exactly the same instrument!

Well, thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Stay tuned, I have a couple more tools to write about!