BMU wrote:
Did anyone catch the National Geographic special on Stradivarius violins? They did all kinds of tests: x-ray etc to try and determine what made them so magical. None of the theories could give a definitive answer. But my favourite part is they played the Strad and a few other modern high quality violins to a panel of blindfolded experts. They unanimously selected the same violin with comments like "it just moved me more than the others"... but it wasn't the Strad.
The whole issue of strads is a bit questionable for me, because there are very few unmodified strads around - possibly none. They are all instruments that can be traced back to Stradivari, but changes will have been made. I saw one at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford that had been opened and had the tone bars replaced. The original tone bars are still provided with the violin, but newer, replacement bars are in the actual instrument.
This need not devalue the instrument, it is still a Strad, but a MODIFIED Strad. Most are, and I do wonder how much the tone has changed as a result of the modifications.
The instrument business is an odd one.100% authenticity is not the sole driver in determining an instrument's worth. An example I can think of is the 1930s Gibson Mastertone banjos. These are rare and, experts say, unequalled. The magic, apparently, is in the tone ring. Knowlegable buyers will overlook things like repaired or even replaced necks - as long as these are honestly disclosed - but it MUST have the original tone ring. Almost everything else can have been changed, but if the original tone ring is still there than the intstrument retains value. The flip side of the coin is that you can have an immaculate Mastertone EXCEPT for the tone ring (replaced or modified) and the instrument will devalue a lot.
But what I wonder is the surviving Strads (and did you know he made guitars - there's one of those too in the Ashmolean) sound the way that the master builder intended. I certainly don't believe that they cannot be surpassed - though as with all things in instruments, this judgement is at least partly subjective. And, of course, modern instruments won't have benefitted from the aging and the playing that Strads have had.
In terms of acoustic guitars, I believe we are living in a golden age. Pre-war Martins are still THE collector's pieces, and they can sound very good indeed, but I wonder how the Lowdens, the Collings, the Ohlsons, the Manzers, the Ryans etc built in the last few years will sound with 50 years on them. Some of them sound pretty damn good already. Even some of the contemporary Martin reconstructions of their "Golden Era" guitars sound exceptional now.
