hello Jose,
thanks for your purchase. Please see below the photos for your reference.
The price will be USD150.
Please confirm your address as follows:
Jose Fernando Meireles Pinto
Rua Augusto Marques Bom
29 6C
Coimbra, Coimbra
3030-218
Portugal
Thanks, JP
Hi Jehpin,
I am looking for a 1/8th size violin for my baby girl,
what do you recomend and what is a reasonable price for a child to start learning.
——— Reply ———-
Hi
actually in my opinion, the better choice would be to rent one violin from your local store,
or buy one which allows you to trade back in future for a larger violin.
This is because at this point of time, you will get better value with a used violin. A used
violin is also easier to play because the tone is already broken in. Most 1/8 violin are just
average in quality anyway. And they don’t differ much from one another.
The move from 1/8 to 1/4 could be quite soon also so you may have to change it before you
know it.
Once your girl reaches 1/2 size then you can consider buying one. As at that time, she
could be an average player, or a prodigy in the making. And only then will she have enough
skills to harness the qualities of a better violin.
Hope this helps,
Jehpin
Air Shipping
Normally one carton fits 6 or 10 violins. This way, the weight is over 20kg and qualifies for extra discount at the post office, which I can pass them on to you. The final weight depends on the cases you use as all violins weigh around the same weight. For plywood shell cases, the maximum per large carton is 6 violins. But you can use my hard foam cases which is very good quality as well.
Sea Shipping
Normally worth it only when you are shipping about 24 violins and above. Takes 21 days to USA and 30 days to most European countries. It’s not as complicated as everyone thinks. Just look up a company who will do customs clearance for you (using your local business directory) and give me their contact details. After that, I will take care of everything for you to ship to your desired address.
There are about seven hundred Stradivarius violins still intact from the 17th century, and they are among the most sought-after instruments in the world (3). Most, if not all, of the greatest violinists of modern times believe that there is something in the Cremonese violins that provides superior tonal quality to all other violins. Skilled violinists can even distinguish between different qualities in the sound produced by individual Stradivarius violins. The challenge for scientists is to characterize such differences by physical measurements. In practice, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between a Stradivarius instrument and a modern copy on the basis of measured responses because the ear is a supreme detection device and the brain is a far more sophisticated analyzer of complex sounds than any system yet developed to assess musical quality. There have been many theories as to why Stradivarius violins produce such legendary brilliance and resonance, none providing a conclusive answer.
To understand the factors that affect the quality of sound produced by violins, the functioning of the violin must be understood. First of all, sound is produced by drawing a bow across one or more of the four stretched strings, but the strings themselves produce almost no sound. The energy from the vibrating string is transferred to the sound box, which is the main body of the violin. The bridge, which supports the strings, acts as a mechanical transformer; it converts the transverse forces of the strings into the vibrational modes of the sound box (4). The bridge itself also has resonant modes, playing a role in the overall tone. The front plate of the violin is expertly carved with f-holes which boost the sound output at low frequencies, through the Helmholtz air resonance. The Helmholtz air resonance describes the action of the air bouncing backwards and forwards through the f-holes (1). Then, front and back plates are skillfully carved to get the right degree of arching and variation in thickness. Even the tiniest changes in the thickness of the plates and the smallest variations in the properties of the wood will significantly affect the specific resonance in the frequency range (1).
There are many theories as to the “secret” of Stradivarius violins. Of course what was obviously first explored was the exact size of the violins and ratio of the parts of the violin to each other. It was proposed that perhaps the magic lay in some perfect ratio of measurements in the pieces of the violin, but instrument makers have disassembled their violins, calibrated every dimension of the pieces to within the hundredth of an inch, and replicated the measurements perfectly in new instruments, but failed to duplicate the Stradivarius magic (2). Another factor to consider is that almost all Cremonese instruments underwent extensive restoration and improvement in the 19th century. For example, in the 19th century, both the bass bar and the sound post were made bigger to strengthen the instrument and increase the sound output. The bass bar is glued underneath the top plate to stop energy being dissipated into acoustically inefficient higher-order modes. The sound post is a solid rod wedged between the back and front plates which causes the bridge to rock, making the plates vibrate with larger amplitude, producing a stronger sound (1).
Some tests suggest that early Italian makers, such as Stradivari, may have tuned the resonant modes of the individual front and back plates to exact musical intervals (1). They would be identified by the traditional flexing and tapping of the plates, in essence, the violin maker’s brain providing the interpretative computing power to perform nodal analysis. This would be consistent with the prevailing Renaissance view of perfection, which was measure in terms of numbers and exact ratios. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence to support this case, and physicists have used lab equipment to analyze the vibrational patterns of Cremonese violin front and back plates and had craftsmen carve new plates that faithfully reproduce the patterns, yet still the extraordinary and brilliant tone of Stradivari’s violins is missing (2). Also, top players regularly return their instruments to violin makers to optimize the sound by moving the sound post and adjusting the bridge, showing that there is no unique set of vibrational characteristics for any particular instrument, even a Stradivarius (1).
A claim had been made by one of the last famed Cremonese violin makers, Joannes Baptista Guadagnini, that Stradivari’s secret laid in using wood that had been dry-aged, with no extra treatment (3). The problem was that in Venice, from 1700 until 1720, when Stradivari produced his most prized and valued violins, wood supplies were tightly controlled by government authorities. People would have been thrown in jail for simply walking out and cutting wood from the forests. Authorized woodcutters felled trees and dumped the longs into rivers where they were carried downstream to the capital. By the time violin makers had access to the wood, it had been sitting in water for weeks or even months at a time (2). When wood shavings from Cremonese instruments were examined, residue of bacteria and fungi showed up, just as you’d expect in wood which had been sitting in water. This suggests that perhaps Guadagnini was deliberately misleading people so that nobody could replicate the great masters.
One of the most widely known theories is that the secret lies in a special kind of varnish used. Scholars from Cambridge University used electron microscopy to identify many of the ingredients of the varnish itself and the materials used to smooth the surface before the varnish is applied (1). They concluded that most could have easily been bought from the pharmacist shop next to Stradivari’s workshop and that there is no convincing evidence to support the idea of a secret formula. Joseph Nagyvary has a slightly different take on the varnish issue. He claims that the local lumberman and the local apothecary simply happened to supply Stradivari with the ideal wood and perfect varnish; the production of his magnificent and extraordinary instruments was just a lucky accident (3).
The secret to producing such amazing tonal quality, he claims lies in the varnish. Nagyvary proposes the idea that the insect-repelling mixture of “salt of gems” (which are finely crushed crystals) and borax that the Cremonese violin makers used as varnish is what fossilized the wood to a perfect pitch (3). He believed that the violin makers treated their wood with mineral solutions, which is not a far-fetched idea, as the alchemy books of the time had plenty of recipes for mineral-rich wood preservatives used by furniture makers to protect chairs and tables against damage from insects and general rot. Salt of gems was commonly used as well to add stiffness to the wood and make the finish glitter. Nagyvary’s idea is that the accidental chemical reaction of phosphates and wood lifted Stradivarius’s violins to a whole new level.
The finish of the most pristine of the surviving Stradivarius instruments has a brittle, almost glassy look. If Stradivari’s varnish contained sugar or a polysaccharide, the molecules would have attached to one another and to the wood, stiffening it so it could vibrate more efficiently (4). Fruit-tree extracts were widely used in wood varnishes as well, and Nagyvary claims that the pectin creates polymers which continue to add to the superior brilliance of the Stradivarius tonal quality (3). Unfortunately, ultraviolet photography has revealed that many fine-sounding Italian violins have lost almost all their original varnish. These violins were recoated during the 19th century or later (1). Therefore, the composition of the varnish may have had little to do with the overall superior tonal quality of the Stradivarius violins.
Another important finding by Nagyvary is that violins acknowledged to be great by expert listeners all look similar on the sound analyzer. He found that the sound pattern almost exactly reproduces that of a human voice (2). He built violins to match the spectrogram tests of the Stradivarius violins, results registering between 4,000 and 6,000 kHz, the zone where the human ear is the most sensitive. Shunsuke Sato, a top violinist, played both a Stradivarius violin and Nagyvary’s replica as a test. Though Nagyvary’s violin exhibits an uncommon brilliance and resonance, the Stradivarius violin sounded much warmer and even the untrained ear could hear a distinct difference (3).
A new theory which has emerged attributes the climate of the time period to the uncommonly amazing sound of the Stradivarius violins. A tree-ring dating expert, from the University of Texas, and a climatologist, from Columbia University, claim that the wood used by Stradivari had developed special acoustic properties as it was growing because of a “Little Ice Age” (4). They propose the idea that an extended period of long winters and cool summers gripped Europe from the mid-1400s until the mid-1800s. The peak coldest point of this ice age was during a seventy year period from 1645 until 1715, known as the Maunder Minimum. This change in climate affected wood density, yielding uncommonly dense Alpine spruce for Stradivari, creating superior tonal quality. Stradivari was born the year before the Maunder Minimum began and produced his most prized and valued instruments from 1700 until 1720, right at the end of the period. These experts write that the narrow tree rings which personify the Maunder Minimum in Europe played a role in the enhanced sound quality of instruments produced by the Cremona violinmakers and that the narrow tree rings would not only strengthen the violin but would also increase the wood’s density (4).
Overall, science has not provided any conclusive answer on the existence or otherwise of any measurable property that would set Stradivarius violins apart from the finest violins made by skilled craftsmen today. However, the really top soloists and the violin dealers remain convinced by the legend of the Stradivarius violins. Perhaps this is due to certain snobbery on the part of the violinists, attempting to set themselves aside as elite. Perhaps it is the dealers who do not want people questioning whether simply the name of Stradivari alone is worth a million dollars. Certainly, the secret of the Stradivarius violins is elusive. I would find it interesting, in light of this new study on the climate of the 17th century in Italy, to have scientists grow a crop of trees in controlled climates to produce exceptionally narrow rings, then attempt to recreate the magic of the Cremonese violins. This may be the real key to unlocking Stradivari’s secret. Personally, I find it intriguing that science cannot find an answer to the brilliance of the Stradivarius violin’s sound. Highly trained individuals can detect the difference between a Stradivarius and a new modern copy, however good the copy may be. Skilled individuals can detect the difference between the sounds of an Italian Cremonese sound and those with a more French tone. Experts can even tell apart an individual Stradivarius from another Stradivarius. Yet do not know how to characterize such properties in meaningful physical terms.
1)Science and the Stradivarius, PhysicsWeb, April 2000
2)Stradivari’s Secret, Discover, July 2000
3)Stradivarius: Artisan or Accidental Chemist?, November 2001
4)Cool Weather May Be Stradivarius’ Secret, CNN.com, December 2003
***
I mirror this article because I felt it was good and I could gather some comments from my readers and friends. The original link to this article is http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web3/s1kim.html
Q: I find it hard to tell which are your best violins. I get the impression that the Performa are best, but at the same time the PDF file does not compare them to your other fiddles. For example, which is better, Composer or Performa? I know it often depends on the music you want to play, but in your opinion what is your top class violin? Thanks! — Dave
A: Hi Dave,
you are right again. It’s really hard to tell which are the best violins sometimes. You see, I represent 7 workshops so far and they each have their unique style of making. From my client’s feedback, the Performa offers the best value in terms of tone, although they are varnished in just one way. The Alpine 87 is getting very popular too, despite its higher price, but the buyers are all repeat buyers. So I guess they discover the true value after they play for some time and they come back with their friends’ orders.
The Composer is geared towards a shop who wants to sell many type of varnishing with the same tone, rich and powerful. This allows the reseller to have many different styles of varnishing and colour to suit many advancing students. In terms of tone, this violin is bias towards the higher registers, allowing easy playing, especially for advancing students. I send you one MP3 of music played by my client T. Gentges. You can see his playing style is suitable for this violin.
For top class, try the Alpine 87 (regular or master) or the Performa 5 star (for best value for money). The Vecchio is a good violin too. But the workshop is my newer discovery for less than a year so I am still gathering feedbacks from clients.
–Jehpin
Contact me if you want the sound sample by T. Gentges.
Making the Baroque style neck joint on the violin (and some other things of importance)
The essential differences between the modern and Baroque way of making the neck joint are that in the Baroque style
1) the neck joint is made before cutting out the back and belly plates
2) instead of cutting a slot for the neck to the rib structure at the top block, the neck is glued on top of the rib and then the joint is secured by one or more metal nails or some similar technique
3) the Baroque neck is not at an angle in relation to the body of the instrument but rather in straight line with it
4) the neck is thicker throughout than the modern one
Begin with preparing the top, bottom and corner blocks and making the rib structure in the normal way. Linings for the lower edge of the ribs (where the ribs are joined with the back plate) can also be made at this stage.
Also cut out the neck and carve the scroll. The scroll needs to be pretty much finished before starting to make the neck joint, because working on it later would be too difficult. (The underside of the neck can be left a bit thicker than necessary, it can be easily worked on later.
For a typical Baroque neck’s side profile, see the attached pictures of a Stainer violin.) The top surface of the neck should be finished straight at this point. The neck root should have a height of more than 35 mm (for the violin; for the viola more, depending on the rib height). The excess height will be cut away later.
When the rib structure and the neck/scroll are ready, a straight and flat surface of the shape of the neck root is prepared to the rib and the top block: (see picture 1)
Similarly, the root of the neck should have a perfectly flat surface for seamless gluing. (See picture 2.) This surface is at perfect 90 degrees angle both horizontally in relation to the center line of the neck and vertically in relation to the upper surface of the neck.
The neck is glued onto the rib so that the upper surface of the neck extends ca. 4 mm above the upper edge of the ribs: (picture 3)
The lower part of the neck joint, which has previously been left a bit longer than necessary, is now cut to level with the rib structure: (picture 4)
At this point the rib structure is removed from the mould.
Next, the neck joint has to be secured so that the seam doesn’t come open when the instrument is strung. There are
several possible ways of doing this. The most common techniques historically were driving metal nails or a wooden block through the upper block and into the root of the neck, joining them together.
However, I suggest using one or two wooden pegs made of maple or similar hard wood, in a similar fashion as the tuning pegs and holes for the pegs are made. This is easier to accomplish with the usual violin maker’s tools.
So, drill a hole (or two) into the top block (see picture 5), deep enough that it will penetrate ca. 1 cm into the root of the neck, and just big enough in diameter so that your peg hole cutter will fit into the opening. If only one hole is made, it’s probably better to use a cello peg hole cutter even on the violin and viola. (When making a Baroque neck on the cello, it is better to make several holes.)
Next, prepare the hole with the peg hole cutter just as is normally done when making holes for the tuning pegs, and make a wooden peg which fits exactly into the hole.
Put some glue into the hole and insert the peg, until it fits well. Leave this to dry. If you made two holes, fit an another peg in a similar fashion.
Cut away any extra length from the peg(s) and smoothen the surface.
Now a slot (recess) of ca. 3 mm is cut into the top part of the neck root: (pictures 6 and 7) This is necessary so that the belly plate fits into this slot.
Proceed with making the upper linings and cutting out the back and belly plates as usual.
When spot-gluing the back and belly plates to the ribs, make sure that the neck is well centered in relation to the rib cage. This can be done by marking the exact center points on two places on the upper side of the neck – at the pegbox and at the root of the neck – and at the lower block, and inserting a small metal pin to the outer two center points, at the pegbox and at the lower block. (See picture 8.) Attach a string to the pins, pulling it tight. When the string exactly meets the center point at the root of the neck, the neck is well centered. If is isn’t, you can slightly twist the rib cage at the C bouts to the left
or right to get the neck centered. Getting the neck well centered is more important than getting a perfectly symmetrical outline for the instrument.
When spot-gluing the belly plate on, make sure it fits the slot (recess) previously cut into the root of the neck.
Proceed with working the back and belly as usual. The purfling on the belly of the instrument runs all the way under the fingerboard.
When the back and belly plates are detached from the rib cage for working the inside of the back and belly, glue the rib cage to a piece of plywood to prevent the rib cage from getting deformed.
It is important to know that on a Baroque instrument the bassbar is shorter and slimmer than a modern one. There are no standard measurements, but for general guidelines here are some measurements of original Baroque bassbars:
maximum
instrument: length (mm) height (mm) thickness
(mm)
Jacob Stainer violin, 1656 250 6,7 4,9
Nicola Amati violin, 1665 235 5,0 4,4
Nicola Amati violin, 1671 217 6,2 5,0
A.Stradivari violin, 1719 241 6,6 4,7
Jacob Stainer viola, 1660 320 8,1 6,0
M.Albani viola, 1688 268 5,4 5,5
A.Catini cello, 1660-68 544 13,3 14,8
A.Stradivari cello, 1667 533 18,3 10,7
A.Gagliano cello, 1725 554 12,9 9,5
When the back and belly plates are ready, with purflings and the bassbar in place, the body of the instrument is assembled. Care must be taken that the rib cage again fits the outline of the back and belly.
Finally, it is also important to know that on a Baroque violin (or viola, or cello) the saddle doesn’t raise above the level of the edge of the belly plate as it does on a modern instrument. On the other hand, for maximum stability, the saddle is often embedded into the rib structure; see picture 12.
Attached are pictures of a Jacob Stainer violin from 1679, with original neck and fingerboard. It can be used as a reference in making Baroque style necks on a violin or a viola, in particular regarding the side profile of the neck. Note that the neck is at a straight line in relation to the body of the instrument.
Making a Baroque neck is basically similar in procedure, except that it became usual already in the late 17th century to make the neck’s side profile more like a modern neck would be. This was so that the bridge could be made higher than before. See attached pictures of a Baroque cello neck of this type.
One website to be recommended: www.vanzandtviolins.com. There are several pictures of instruments with Baroque,
Classical and Modern necks.
Source of article: my friend Petri from Finland.
***I will be making this violin with him together. 
If you have some suggestions or recommendations to this article, please write me an email. I get excited with such things! –jehpin
Download the latest here http://www.old-violin-house.com/2007/TOVH-Catalogue-2007.pdf (6.6MB) PDF
JPG versions here http://www.old-violin-house.com
Q: How long is the time from: first assembly and glueing, until you finish and sell? How long do they sit and age after glueing? Thank you. Justin/USA
A: after they are glued and assembled, they sit for 4-6 months, to ensure no cracks or defects. Then the teacher will test the sound of them to pick out the top grade violins. Assembly takes 1-1.5 months. Hand varnishing takes another 25 days. When they reach my store, they normally rest for 1-2 months before they are sold off. So in total from assembly to the client’s hand, it’s 7-10.5 months, depending on model.
Before the luthier starts working on the wood, the wooden planks are dried for 3 years at the workshop. Before they reach the workshops, they are dried at the wood supplier for 6-10 years. Despite what many people claims, China still don’t have 20 or 30 years wood. Even 15-18 years are hard to fine, because of China’s short history in violin making, meaning many wood suppliers have just got started 10 years ago to store the wood. Before that, old wood and new wood sells for the same money so there’s no incentive. Another reason for lack of 20-30 years wood is the finances to store them before selling them, as the wood suppliers are mainly poor villagers.
Q: We notice that you describe your violins according to some grading system, e.g. some as ‘Advanced Level’, ‘Advanced Level 4/4′, ‘Professional Level’, ‘Rare’, etc. Can you please let us know what are the different grades you use. What are the criteria you use to grade them (e.g. is it by age and quality of wood, sound or tone quality, workmanship, etc). MANY THANKS. Woodglue.
Nov 17, 2006
A: Hi Woodglue, the age of the violin is stated. Each batch of wood is at least 10 years of age. Some are older, but older alone does not mean better sound in many cases. We play each violin before they are varnished to determine their level according to their sound and flaming pattern. The workmanship for each range is uniform, regardless of their grade – A 2star is made in the same way as a 5star. Composer violins is another range of violins, hence workmanship is uniform across all composer violins. Composer violins is rather uniform in sound, being rich and powerful. Performa range of violins have different grades in terms of tones. This is due to the tuning of the base table during the making process, and the top spruce is made slightly thicker to open up for more development as the violin is played. The Composer is slightly more limited, but it plays easily and the sound opens up much faster than Performa. I have a poster in my Performa violin auction which explains the various star grading. If you have an email I can email this to you. Hope this helps.
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