My fiddle is a very "modest" beginner's instrument. I don't think the Strad would sound significantly better were I to play it! Guess I'll wait a bit and hope that the future may bring my playing worthy of even fantasizing of this kind of purchase.
From what I've heard, it seems that it takes a very experienced player indeed of virtuoso standard to tame a Stradivarius or similar. For the likes of 99.99% of players it's a bit like asking an ordinary car driver to have a go at driving a F1 Ferrari!
The fact is that for the great majority of fiddle/violin players they can do an excellent job with almost any fiddle under $2000 (or even well under $1000) if (a) the instrument is set up properly, (b) the player is prepared to do the necessary work, and (c) they have a good bow. This last point is the hidden secret that the virtuosos almost never mention when they talk about their 6-figure old Italian violins or whatever, but the fact is that a poor bow will hold a player back more than the instrument will, whereas the best bow you can afford will enable you to progress towards your natural limit (which I'm sure most of us never reach!).
Trevor
What I should also have said concerning bows is that if you have a really good bow you'll hang onto it even if you change your fiddle for a much better one.
Trevor
Had to take the fiddle in for some adjusting. The guy who did the adjusting actually makes bows. At the time, I was mildly embarrased with my modest little fiddle (this gentleman does work on the string section of our symphony). He was great! He essentially said the same as you Trevor, indicating practice was the key. When my playing is up to it, I plan to visit his shop for a bow.
Hmmm, well to me, my fiddle is priceless. I love it's tone, balance, responsiveness, even the feel of the neck. But I paid only $650 US for it (thanks to a friend who owns a music shop and was happy to pass along a good deal when she saw it herself).
The better fiddles I've played (including some in the 6 figure range) were very responsive, projecting well and producing great, complex tones at the lightest touch. Some low-end fiddles are also capable of projecting and putting out good tone, but it takes heavy bow pressure and speed to do so. Those fiddles are exhausting to play. The good news is that it *is* possible to find great sounding fiddles without spending your life savings.
I myself, at that moment being a lucky bastard, got my fiddle for free. All I paid for was to get the sound post fixed (there was no sound post in it when I got it) and a new set of strings. That wasn't expensive. It's a cheap thing, but it sounds OK. Good enough for my playing this far...
I also have a very interesting fiddle, now being repaired at a luthier. It's from 1808 with a lovely dark brown color. I have no idea what it sounds like (a lot of repair was needed when I bought it), but I only paid about $11 and I won't need to pay for the repairs, so it's OK if it sounds like crap.
At this point in my so-called career (tongue firmly in cheek), I am actually quite happy with my fiddle. Since it's early days yet, I'm not concerned that the tone isn't quite what one should be hearing.
I'm able to play it and am enjoying it tremendously. And that it without price!
I got my grandpa's fiddle. I think, it is lovely and I don't care how much it is worth - moneywise. It's my baby - though quite a bit older than it's Mam. The fiddle is probably 100 years old and has been played a lot. Though I think it is quite loud I was so amazed when I played a house session with Maeve Donnelly a few month ago. Never in my life I heard a fiddle that was so loud. A friend who played the uilleann pipes was hardly heard when they both played. Amazing. The bow is important, I am sure. I bought mine in Prague while I was teaching there.
My first fiddle was inherited from my grandpa. I took it in for an appraisal at K.W. & Sons. They told me it was worth about $500-1000. They also had the original advertisement from J.W. Pepper & Sons, (the distributor at the time) from 1916. The model 503 sold for a whopping $5.80 including case, bow, rosin and instructions. Interesting enough was that it was the second least expensive fiddle on the page, the cheapest was $4.70 and the most expensive was $11.60! It sounds so much warmer then my new $2000 hatchet.
I don't really care because I'm never going to sell it. My mum and me smuggled it across the east/west German border in 1979. It is about 100 years old, German copy of an Italian original, and was owned by an aunt who we were visiting. My mum placed a box of dahlias in front of it in the boot of our Ford Fiesta. When we got to the border she got the officer to chat about gardening so he didn't bother to check the car properly. And would we have been in trouble if he had..
My mum gave Aunt Hertha 5- or 600 west-DMs for the fiddle (illegally of course) and I've been happy to play it ever since.
Ach, Wir haben Sie jetz! Gebens mir die Geige, und komen Sie mit uns! Raus!
Sorry, just wondering if you should confess such international crimes online....
My Dad won my fiddle in a card game (along with a pump organ and a piano). Turns out it's about 150 years old, a German copy of an Amati violin and well.... sounds better with playing. Any suggestions on good bows.... that's my next step.
Currently, I have several fiddles and violins floating around the house. The one I use to play my traditional music (my fiddle) is a Czech violin that appraised at around $1,500 before it was rebuilt and I don't know what it is worth now. I use a $500 bow with it (the price for a bow is well worth it for the sound). My other violins are considerably more expensive, and I use them for classical violin playing, but I like the bright sound of my fiddle. Yes, it is harder to draw sound out of than my violins, but with lots of bow speed I can make the notes fly. It also resonates less than my violins, but I find this good since I can really make the ornamentations stand out without becoming one ringing muddle. I don't really think the price of the instrument matters too much as long as you are happy with it and can make your music sound good.
When I apprenticed with a luthier a few summers ago I was always trying out the instruments before he put them on the sale rack. I never knew the price ahead of time, and interestingly enough most of the ones I could make sound the best were in the $3,000 to $8,000 range as opposed to those either in the $1,000 or $10,000+ range.
In general I think the instrument should match your level of skill at playing no matter what the price.
I sometimes think that Jeffries anglo concertinas are similar to Strads. You pay triple the price for double the noise. Mine is around 1860 so older than many fiddles.
I don't know the first thing about violins but have 2 in the house which my 2 eldest daughters are learning. My neighbour and I were talking about playing traditional music and she told me that her grandfather was an accomplished musician who had once played in a large orchestra in Germany. He had given her mother an old violin and her mother in turn had left the violin to my neighbour in her will.
She wanted to know if it was worth anything. I told her I that if she gave me the details of the label I would have a look on the net and try and find out more about it for her.
A couple of days later she turned up on my doorstep with the the makers name on a piece of paper. I was already thinking about making her an fair offer for the instrument, so that my daughter might move up from the three quarter size she played to one of full size.
I had a look on the internet under "Sebastian Klotz 1753" and nearly died when I saw the price that these instuments were selling for!!
Later that evening I called round her house and took great delight in telling her it "wasn't really worth that much as they were mass produced replica's, made around 1890" I told her that I'd give her £250 for it as my daughter was looking for a "new" violin.
She seemed pretty happy with the "deal" until I produced a page I'd printed of a site where one was on offer for £12,000!!
Interesting though to find out that this violins "worth" was approximately £250 of sentimental value.
Will, the confessed crime was not really one (only in the eyes and laws of communist east germany) ... so ten years later - after the fall of the wall in 1989 - kuec might have bought this fiddle from his mothers aunt like you and me do at any market place. but anyway 1979 it was quite a risk...
here my two fiddles: first one I got with about ten. it was about 300 DMarks that time and a fiddle maker told me it is worth 600 to 700 Euros now. second one I bought in Ireland in 2000 and paid 950 irish pound. a couple of month ago somebody offered 1300 Euros for it. so both really no high price stuff, but nice and good sounding instruments - they fit my capabilities fine.
Hmmm...my fiddles always seem to reflect the relationships that I happen to be in.First fiddle was a three quarter amati copy-I think I ended up with it because no-one else needed it at the time.
Then I had a lovely strad copy-which disappeared into the night.
I bought a fiddle in a barber shop window in Melbourne. Beautiful instrument- ended up with its back broke after a kickin fight in the garden.
At a gig one time, a guy came up and stuck another fiddle in my hand. The fingerboard was glued awry to the neck-it wouldn't hold water but it had crazy lonely notes.
Then a bluegrass player sold me his spare-had high times on tour, but it ended up with somebody else. Just guess I couldn't make it hit the high spots.
My playing fiddle at the moment brings me great joy. I love her weight,feel and response. It is right for me at the moment, and I'll never give her away.
But my favourite would be my grandfathers fiddle (3/4 czech strad copy). Probably worth less than your shoes, but I had to commit larceny to retrieve it from from an evil witch who would not return it.
When I bow the strings I feel connected to the stuff...you know?
I will never part with my violin - it used to belong to my grandmother and is my connection to her (she died very young in 1955). It's old (probably well over 100 years old and may have been passed down to her), a bit knocked about with splits, chips, warps and could probably sound better but will always be special.
I have bought an electric violin to practice with - not sure if this will find its way into sessions (!) - my 'traditional' instrument of choice at the moment is the mandolin
Somehow I ended up with 6 violins! Two are my dad's. The others bought in junk shops and done up, 'cos I can't leave them there. I feel sorry for them. (SAD eh!?)
Realised I shouldn't have all these so have rationalised. Have given one of dad's to my brother and kept the other (which I wouldn't part with for all the world) and put viola strings on the cheap thing. ALL the others I took into my friendly violin repairer chap and said if he took all three, I'd buy a better one and give him a bit of extra dosh.
Outcome, I now have three fiddles, one my dad's, one with viola strings and my new BRILLIANT fiddle which just SINGS!!
I have a very old German fiddle which I can't date exactly, but my parents bought it for me seven years ago for about £450 and it's actually worth between £6000 and £8000... I'll be able to price it more exactly soon when it's dated properly. However much it's worth, I wouldn't sell it - it's got a gorgeous tone and it's sentimental value's huge!
My fiddle was my dads - so sentimental worth is priceless, its a french fiddle and she turns 100 next year! We will have to have a party My fiddle repairer is shocked at the condition - just years of sessions in pubs getting bumped about etc - and basically says that the value would be so much higher if she hadnt had such a hard life, but who cares - she still sounds beautiful and I'd never sell her anyways. I think that french fiddles made around that time are just beautiful, I was playing a friends fiddle last night and hers is french fiddle made around that time too and it just had a lovely tone to it.
How much is your fiddle worth??
How much is your fiddle worth??
For those with a bit of extra cash and view their instruments as investments;
The latest Strad fiddle sale:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3260035.stm
My fiddle is a very "modest" beginner's instrument. I don't think the Strad would sound significantly better were I to play it! Guess I'll wait a bit and hope that the future may bring my playing worthy of even fantasizing of this kind of purchase.
Interesting reading in any case.
Deb.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Agnes Nutter
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
From what I've heard, it seems that it takes a very experienced player indeed of virtuoso standard to tame a Stradivarius or similar. For the likes of 99.99% of players it's a bit like asking an ordinary car driver to have a go at driving a F1 Ferrari!
The fact is that for the great majority of fiddle/violin players they can do an excellent job with almost any fiddle under $2000 (or even well under $1000) if (a) the instrument is set up properly, (b) the player is prepared to do the necessary work, and (c) they have a good bow. This last point is the hidden secret that the virtuosos almost never mention when they talk about their 6-figure old Italian violins or whatever, but the fact is that a poor bow will hold a player back more than the instrument will, whereas the best bow you can afford will enable you to progress towards your natural limit (which I'm sure most of us never reach!).
Trevor
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
What I should also have said concerning bows is that if you have a really good bow you'll hang onto it even if you change your fiddle for a much better one.
Trevor
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Thanks!
Had to take the fiddle in for some adjusting. The guy who did the adjusting actually makes bows. At the time, I was mildly embarrased with my modest little fiddle (this gentleman does work on the string section of our symphony). He was great! He essentially said the same as you Trevor, indicating practice was the key. When my playing is up to it, I plan to visit his shop for a bow.
Deb.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Agnes Nutter
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Oh, but I would love a crack at that Ferrari as well!
D.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Agnes Nutter
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Hmmm, well to me, my fiddle is priceless. I love it's tone, balance, responsiveness, even the feel of the neck. But I paid only $650 US for it (thanks to a friend who owns a music shop and was happy to pass along a good deal when she saw it herself).
The better fiddles I've played (including some in the 6 figure range) were very responsive, projecting well and producing great, complex tones at the lightest touch. Some low-end fiddles are also capable of projecting and putting out good tone, but it takes heavy bow pressure and speed to do so. Those fiddles are exhausting to play. The good news is that it *is* possible to find great sounding fiddles without spending your life savings.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I myself, at that moment being a lucky bastard, got my fiddle for free. All I paid for was to get the sound post fixed (there was no sound post in it when I got it) and a new set of strings. That wasn't expensive. It's a cheap thing, but it sounds OK. Good enough for my playing this far...
I also have a very interesting fiddle, now being repaired at a luthier. It's from 1808 with a lovely dark brown color. I have no idea what it sounds like (a lot of repair was needed when I bought it), but I only paid about $11 and I won't need to pay for the repairs, so it's OK if it sounds like crap.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Pontus Adefjord
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
At this point in my so-called career (tongue firmly in cheek), I am actually quite happy with my fiddle. Since it's early days yet, I'm not concerned that the tone isn't quite what one should be hearing.
I'm able to play it and am enjoying it tremendously. And that it without price!
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Agnes Nutter
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I do need a better bow, though. I have tried a couple of other bows (on my fiddle) and there was quite a different.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Pontus Adefjord
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I got my grandpa's fiddle. I think, it is lovely and I don't care how much it is worth - moneywise. It's my baby - though quite a bit older than it's Mam. The fiddle is probably 100 years old and has been played a lot. Though I think it is quite loud I was so amazed when I played a house session with Maeve Donnelly a few month ago. Never in my life I heard a fiddle that was so loud. A friend who played the uilleann pipes was hardly heard when they both played. Amazing. The bow is important, I am sure. I bought mine in Prague while I was teaching there.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Irish Trad. Head
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
My first fiddle was inherited from my grandpa. I took it in for an appraisal at K.W. & Sons. They told me it was worth about $500-1000. They also had the original advertisement from J.W. Pepper & Sons, (the distributor at the time) from 1916. The model 503 sold for a whopping $5.80 including case, bow, rosin and instructions. Interesting enough was that it was the second least expensive fiddle on the page, the cheapest was $4.70 and the most expensive was $11.60! It sounds so much warmer then my new $2000 hatchet.
rgb
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Robby B.
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I don't really care because I'm never going to sell it. My mum and me smuggled it across the east/west German border in 1979. It is about 100 years old, German copy of an Italian original, and was owned by an aunt who we were visiting. My mum placed a box of dahlias in front of it in the boot of our Ford Fiesta. When we got to the border she got the officer to chat about gardening so he didn't bother to check the car properly. And would we have been in trouble if he had..
My mum gave Aunt Hertha 5- or 600 west-DMs for the fiddle (illegally of course) and I've been happy to play it ever since.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by kuec
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Ach, Wir haben Sie jetz! Gebens mir die Geige, und komen Sie mit uns! Raus!
Sorry, just wondering if you should confess such international crimes online....
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
My Dad won my fiddle in a card game (along with a pump organ and a piano). Turns out it's about 150 years old, a German copy of an Amati violin and well.... sounds better with playing. Any suggestions on good bows.... that's my next step.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by ANNY
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Currently, I have several fiddles and violins floating around the house. The one I use to play my traditional music (my fiddle) is a Czech violin that appraised at around $1,500 before it was rebuilt and I don't know what it is worth now. I use a $500 bow with it (the price for a bow is well worth it for the sound). My other violins are considerably more expensive, and I use them for classical violin playing, but I like the bright sound of my fiddle. Yes, it is harder to draw sound out of than my violins, but with lots of bow speed I can make the notes fly. It also resonates less than my violins, but I find this good since I can really make the ornamentations stand out without becoming one ringing muddle. I don't really think the price of the instrument matters too much as long as you are happy with it and can make your music sound good.
When I apprenticed with a luthier a few summers ago I was always trying out the instruments before he put them on the sale rack. I never knew the price ahead of time, and interestingly enough most of the ones I could make sound the best were in the $3,000 to $8,000 range as opposed to those either in the $1,000 or $10,000+ range.
In general I think the instrument should match your level of skill at playing no matter what the price.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by esfiddle
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
In that case, I shudda stuck with my first $25 pawn shop fiddle....
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I sometimes think that Jeffries anglo concertinas are similar to Strads. You pay triple the price for double the noise. Mine is around 1860 so older than many fiddles.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by geoffwright
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I don't know the first thing about violins but have 2 in the house which my 2 eldest daughters are learning. My neighbour and I were talking about playing traditional music and she told me that her grandfather was an accomplished musician who had once played in a large orchestra in Germany. He had given her mother an old violin and her mother in turn had left the violin to my neighbour in her will.
She wanted to know if it was worth anything. I told her I that if she gave me the details of the label I would have a look on the net and try and find out more about it for her.
A couple of days later she turned up on my doorstep with the the makers name on a piece of paper. I was already thinking about making her an fair offer for the instrument, so that my daughter might move up from the three quarter size she played to one of full size.
I had a look on the internet under "Sebastian Klotz 1753" and nearly died when I saw the price that these instuments were selling for!!
Later that evening I called round her house and took great delight in telling her it "wasn't really worth that much as they were mass produced replica's, made around 1890" I told her that I'd give her £250 for it as my daughter was looking for a "new" violin.
She seemed pretty happy with the "deal" until I produced a page I'd printed of a site where one was on offer for £12,000!!
Interesting though to find out that this violins "worth" was approximately £250 of sentimental value.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by mikemcdaid
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Will, the confessed crime was not really one (only in the eyes and laws of communist east germany) ... so ten years later - after the fall of the wall in 1989 - kuec might have bought this fiddle from his mothers aunt like you and me do at any market place. but anyway 1979 it was quite a risk...
here my two fiddles: first one I got with about ten. it was about 300 DMarks that time and a fiddle maker told me it is worth 600 to 700 Euros now. second one I bought in Ireland in 2000 and paid 950 irish pound. a couple of month ago somebody offered 1300 Euros for it. so both really no high price stuff, but nice and good sounding instruments - they fit my capabilities fine.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by crannog
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Hmmm...my fiddles always seem to reflect the relationships that I happen to be in.First fiddle was a three quarter amati copy-I think I ended up with it because no-one else needed it at the time.
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Then I had a lovely strad copy-which disappeared into the night.
I bought a fiddle in a barber shop window in Melbourne. Beautiful instrument- ended up with its back broke after a kickin fight in the garden.
At a gig one time, a guy came up and stuck another fiddle in my hand. The fingerboard was glued awry to the neck-it wouldn't hold water but it had crazy lonely notes.
Then a bluegrass player sold me his spare-had high times on tour, but it ended up with somebody else. Just guess I couldn't make it hit the high spots.
My playing fiddle at the moment brings me great joy. I love her weight,feel and response. It is right for me at the moment, and I'll never give her away.
But my favourite would be my grandfathers fiddle (3/4 czech strad copy). Probably worth less than your shoes, but I had to commit larceny to retrieve it from from an evil witch who would not return it.
When I bow the strings I feel connected to the stuff...you know?
# Posted on November 13th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I will never part with my violin - it used to belong to my grandmother and is my connection to her (she died very young in 1955). It's old (probably well over 100 years old and may have been passed down to her), a bit knocked about with splits, chips, warps and could probably sound better but will always be special.
I have bought an electric violin to practice with - not sure if this will find its way into sessions (!) - my 'traditional' instrument of choice at the moment is the mandolin
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Eachann mac Bodach
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
Somehow I ended up with 6 violins! Two are my dad's. The others bought in junk shops and done up, 'cos I can't leave them there. I feel sorry for them. (SAD eh!?)
Realised I shouldn't have all these so have rationalised. Have given one of dad's to my brother and kept the other (which I wouldn't part with for all the world) and put viola strings on the cheap thing. ALL the others I took into my friendly violin repairer chap and said if he took all three, I'd buy a better one and give him a bit of extra dosh.
Outcome, I now have three fiddles, one my dad's, one with viola strings and my new BRILLIANT fiddle which just SINGS!!
Have I lost one??!!
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by Susie-Lee
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
I have a very old German fiddle which I can't date exactly, but my parents bought it for me seven years ago for about £450 and it's actually worth between £6000 and £8000... I'll be able to price it more exactly soon when it's dated properly. However much it's worth, I wouldn't sell it - it's got a gorgeous tone and it's sentimental value's huge!
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by tbag
Re: How much is your fiddle worth??
My fiddle was my dads - so sentimental worth is priceless, its a french fiddle and she turns 100 next year! We will have to have a party
My fiddle repairer is shocked at the condition - just years of sessions in pubs getting bumped about etc - and basically says that the value would be so much higher if she hadnt had such a hard life, but who cares - she still sounds beautiful and I'd never sell her anyways. I think that french fiddles made around that time are just beautiful, I was playing a friends fiddle last night and hers is french fiddle made around that time too and it just had a lovely tone to it.
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by bb