In my previous post nearly two weeks ago, I had mentioned that I was trying out a Baroque Violin (the top one in the photo above, which I will now refer to as the English violin) to add to my line up... well, actually it would be to replace the Baroque Violin that has been my main instrument for the better part of the last 5 years! Anyway, that particular loan violin (the lower one in the photo above, which I will now be calling the German violin in this post) was always supposed to be a short loan whilst I kept looking for an instrument to become my long term partner.... however, due to the fact that I LOVED the loan violin in combination with my picky tastes for what I was looking for in a violin (plus a touch of real life procrastination....) meant that that 1 year temporary loan ended up being a good deal longer than I had ever though...

Over the course of the last few years... I had been slowly trying out various violins... at luthiers and dealers and sometimes keeping an eye out on the auction houses throughout Europe.... however, it is expensive to travel just to look at intruments... both in terms of money and time and so I wasn't actively going out of my way to look for a Baroque Violin. So, I was quite surprised this year when things suddenly (and with no intervention from me...) took a sudden upsurge in activity... I had left messages with luthiers and dealers asking them to contact me (okay, maybe that was my intervention...) if there was something in the price range that I was looking at that would cross their paths...

So, this year... quite a few violins have found their way into my hands for a trial period (usually around a week...). Sadly, most of these violins have been sent straight back... I said I am pretty particular!

However, this English violin has been very intriguing! It is pretty much everything that I want in a partner.... plus it is coming in under the expected cost.... and comes with a certification from a well-respected violin historian (which means that it is quite likely to be what it is being sold as.... which is a Violin in mostly original state by an English maker c1770). Even better is that it is in very good condition with little damage and the minor damage having been well repaired (surviving the Elizabethan era of "improving" everything...) However, all of those things were of more interest to a collector rather than a musician... however, most definitely a bonus regardless!

After the first week of trial (with it being played in rehearsals, large halls and also by colleagues...)... I came away feeling pretty damn good about it! Which is a great sign... my wife always tells me that I'm very quick if I don't like an instrument... so the fact that I didn't instantly reject it spoke volumes already! As I played it more... I was getting more and more convinved... however, the German Loan violin was at the luthier having some minor repairs (cleaning, replaning the fingerboard and a bridge replacement....) done, so I couldn't do a direct comparison...

Last week, I returned the English violin at the end of the trial period... and picked up my German loan violin again. I had asked for some minor changes to be made to the English violin. However, the German violin was sounding in great condition... especially with the bridge replacement having given a new deep resonant core to the sound... and removing the slight shrillness that had been creeping into the top register... I was starting to doubt.

Yesterday, I made the trip to Amsterdam to pick up the English Violin again... with the small tweaks completed (see below for the nerdy details...).... and now I have the two Violins side by side to directly compare over the weekend... with the expectation that I come to a conclusion soon (I said I would put in an offer on Monday....).

The Comparison

The German Violin (LOAN)

This is the Baroque Violin that has been my main instrument for the past 5 years...it is deep and has an amazing low register... powerful and dark in sound. We've been through quite a fair bit... and it's always been a pleasure to play... I remember at the "choosing" for the loan. I was shown a desk with 8 or so violins that I could choose from... and I had tried and immediately discarded 6 of them.

The remaining two.... one was okay (remember that I was looking for a temporary loan at that time....) and would have been a step up from my existing violin at the time. However, this one... was amazing in sound and response... however, due to the fact that it was slightly shorter in playing string length (only a centimetre or so... but a violinist operates on scales of millimetres for the finger placement!).... it was initially quite hard to find the notes on the fingerboard!

However, due to the fact that I do swap instruments quite often without fuss (I play also viola and viola d'amore... normally, I can switch violins without fuss as well, but this one was significantly different)... I figured that I would be able to manage to re-learn the physical placement without too much of a deal... and thankfully, that was the case... as I had a soloist concert within a few weeks... nothing like the threat of public embarrassment to make you learn fast!

So, all in all... a great violin with decent response and a fat and rich sound especially in the bass... however, the treble side was always a struggle to control. It required a great deal of extra care to stop it sounding shrill... which would always be an extra thing to think about as you were flying up and down the e string.... especially with my personal playing style defaulting to an agile bow side but one that preferred a slightly heavier weight when the bow was actually touching.

That said... this was a loan violin that I could NEVER own.... and talking to the luthier, he said that it was in pretty poor structural condition anyway and wouldn't recommend it for a long term ownership anyway. Too many internal problems and countless repairs (it is a violin from around 1770 as well) made for a multiple repaired large cracks and also very thin wood plates on the top and bottom.

The English Violin (The ONE?)

... and this is the English violin. Hailing from a well known and respected English maker with a date from around 1775 and with a certification of authenticity from a well respected assessor of violins (an English specialist no less!).

It is a different violin to the German violin. It has a much more powerful and brighter overall sound, but still has a great deal of roundness to the sound. It is not quite as dark as the German violin, but it is still dark compared to other violins. The e string (treble) is smooth and silky... it is a complete pleasure to play! It is much more agile and responsive than the German Violin and pairs really very well with the bow that I would usually use with it... and it rings like a bell! Notes just resonate beautifully on this instrument!

The strings that it currently has on are a good deal thinner than I would normally use (58/80/110/silver wound gut vs 66/86/120/silver wound gut) so changing these will likely change the response and core sound... however, this is what I plan to be playing around with this weekend!

It's also a pleasure to play... it comes in significantly under what I had expected to spend... it is a slightly more brilliant sounding violin, whilst not losing a rich and dark core in the lower register. It is fast and agile in response, something that pairs well with my style of playing... however, not so much that it will sound thin and shrill... it is smooth and even in response across the whole register of the instrument... there is nothing not to love!

Plus... it is actually available to purchase! So... I think I have made my decision... I will spend the rest of the weekend trying out different string combinations... but the core the core of the instrument is definitely much loved and I am pretty certain this will be my musical partner going forward!

The Nerdy Stuff!

So, the main reason that I had sent the English Violin back to the luthier after the initial trial period was to replace the tailpiece and tailgut. This is the piece of wood that connects the strings to the tailnut (the end of the violin near the neck). It originally had a modern tailpiece and tailgut, and I wanted to replace it with a Baroque style one with a tailgut that was actually made of gut rather than metal.

This sort of thing changes the tension balance of the strings, and also the resonance of the instrument... so, being the quickest and easiest modification to revert the instrument back to a "proper" Baroque style... it was something that I wanted done before I made a decision as to whether or not to progress further...

So above, you can see the Baroque style tailpiece on the English violin... it is carved from ebony and has a distinct shape to it.

For comparison, this is the French violin that I use for later music (Classical/Romantic era... but not considered a modern tailpiece...)... it is carved from boxwood (I think...) and has quite a different shape to it!

Now... there would be some potential major overhauls to be made that would require the violin to be essentially taken apart for it to regain the "Baroque" form... however, I'm not certain that I would want them done... namely, replacing the bass bar inside the instrument with a lighter construction... and re-angling the neck. As you can see, the neck has a distinct downwards sloping angle against the body of the instrument. This was commonly done in the 19th and 20th centuries, to give a greater tension to the strings... resulting in a more powerful and brilliant sound... but at the cost of warmth and roundness. A debatable "improvement".... but one that was commonly done to ancient instruments....

Compare this against the loan German violin which has a flatter angle... which is considered to be the Baroque norm. However, this is pretty large structural work... which would directly and significantly affect the sound and response of the instrument.... which makes me quite hesitant to consider it! Whilst I was at the luthier... I was asking about this structural modification... and he showed me examples of Baroque instruments in unmodified original states that have quite an angled neck... including a couple by this exact same maker!

Apparently, the flat neck idea is a modern "standardisation" of the Baroque ideal... like most things in the Baroque time, everything was quite fluid and adapted to the situation at hand... not standardised at all (like pitch for example...). So, this idea of a flat neck angle is a modern reinterpretation of what is "correct"... well, screw that... I like the way the instrument is as it is! However, that said... it is clear that the angle on THIS particular violin has been modified... so, it definitely isn't the same angle as it was built with... so, I lose my high ground there!

Again... as a last comparison, this is the French violin... featuring a slightly less angled neck than the English one... but more than the German one.... interesting... these are not really things that you think about as a musician, it is the world of the luthier!

Wrapping up

So... this will be a critical week for the violin testing... I am pretty much smitten by the instrument... although, I do want to see how it changes with different strings... however, that said, it isn't a deal breaker if it doesn't respond well to the heavier strings... every violin is different in this regard, so I can't expect the same set up to work on the English violin that works on the German violin... after all, the French violin has a completely different set up to the German one already!

... the phase after this will be a bit of an unfamiliar one. Bargaining on the price... and any minor repairs and inclusions. I have my targets in mind... but I hate haggling...