Do you have any suggestions on how to spot a good violin? By sight and by ear?
This one is a tough one. It has taken me a few days to try to collect my thoughts on it.
Budget and needs will dictate what is good enough.
A good violin for a world touring classical violinist might be a handmade instrument (new or old). And it is set up for maximum playability and response.
A good violin for a world touring rock violinist might be a cheaper, workshop model that is heavier and doesn’t project as well and the set up is geared towards limiting feedback, not maximizing sound production.
A great violin can have terrible setup. An inexpensive violin can be set up to play almost on par with a professional level - but it can cost some serious dough depending on the modifications. At which point, a musician needs to ask the questions: how much is my instrument worth and how much do the modifications cost - do the modifications equal a better violin purchased from a reputable shop?
I look at things like setup to tell me how much attention the person who has been caring for (or importing) the instrument before it ends up in my hands.
Strings heights towards bridge are too high
Shorter than optimum afterlength
A tailpiece with 4 fine tuners added (not to be confused with a tailpiece with four fine tuners that are integrated into the tailpiece)
Ebonized (painted black) fittings - pegs, fingerboard, tailpiece, chinrest
Cheap packing strings that seem to come on many violins imported from overseas
Measurements that look off - for example: neck is too long
Cracks in the body - especially around soundpost/bridge (top or back) or in the scroll. In cheaper instruments, it’s often not worth the cost to repair them
Misaligned fingerboard to neck
Pegs that look like they’ve been chewed on due to tear out with a dull peg shaper.
Worm damage in older instruments. This is a headache to restore and generally not worth it- at least not to me.
I avoid tuning machines like the plague (except on bass). The metal ones bolted to a scroll (eww) or the perfection pegs. If they wear out - which it’s a geared mechanism that will experience wear and tear - they won’t stay up to pitch and they are a pain to remove. Typically they have to glue them in with some sort of really strong epoxy and to get them out requires more heat and force than I want to take to an instrument. The only circumstance I am really ok (more than grumbling “the customer is always right”) with perfection pegs is if the player had some sort of arthritis or something similar that didn’t allow for good control of pegs. If traditional wood pegs are fit well, they work beautifully - but can require a bit of hand strength to operate efficienctly.
Depending on the level/quality of the instrument/bow the things I find are standard or at least acceptable:
Drawn on purfling -only acceptable to be seen on plywood instruments. These tend to be very inexpensive and very durable. They do not need the cross grain reinforcement that purfling provides (resale value is maybe ~$200 for a violin to ~$600 cello). If you have a solid wood instrument that has drawn on purfling - that’s a warning sign.
The lower end of instruments typically are heavier - built to be able to withstand middle school orchestra rehearsal and all the lack of coordination that comes with that. This makes them great instruments to amplify - as the response is less and they’re more durable for on stage antics.
All that being said, I’ve seen some great low end solid wood instruments, but they end up being one out of a hundred and some terrrrrrible very expensive instruments - where the value is more in the collectible aspect of it as an instrument (or bow).
For me, when I try out instruments, I’m listening to response - especially on the low strings. There was a section of the Lalo Symphony Espanole that is a very fast arpeggiation with shifting up the d, a, and e strings. When I played it in college with the violin I had while at the time, I would hear the notes after I was already onto the next note. There was such a delay I couldn’t hope to play it in tune except to hope my muscle memory was spot on. Fast forward, after I learned about making, restoration, and set up of instruments and bows then I realized that my violin was the one with the lag, not me. A tighter soundpost and a beefier bassbar and that violin can keep up with me playing the Lalo now. I went back to my college professor to show her the improved violin and she was blown away. It was like a whole new violin. Built like a powerhouse.
If I were to pay a shop to do the work, it could cost over $2,000 to get it done well.
I’ll play that passage of Lalo starting measure 36-57 (for response up in positions and changing mood), a quick detache g major 2 octave scale (to go the range of a violin in first position) - to see if the violin keeps up with my fingers, the opening 4 bars to the 2nd bach partita (gives me a feel for if the neck feels like a baseball bat in my hands and general ease of crossing strings), the barriolage starting around measure 13 in the 3rd Bach partita and the slow opening of Meditation from Thais by Massenet - to see how fun it is to play. If I have violins to compare, I play through the bunch to rule out any automatic duds. Then I go pair by pair (like going to the eye doctor) and play the short passages to rule out the lesser instrument (or bow).
Shoulder rests should be the same. Use the same bow. (Or instrument if trying bows - it’s the same process - make as few variables and limit getting overwhelmed). Even a different chinrest can change the feel or sound of a violin and when options have been sorted, I would try with the same style of chinrest if I were making a big monetary decision.
Basically, I look for an instrument that has been well taken care of and see how it plays. Years of experience will tell me what is a reasonable price range for an instrument and what kind of work it might need to optimize it.
