Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 22
Scan 22
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1fore, who has the acumen to select wood with the same care and judgment, and will test it during construction for its acoustical properties by some such method as that hereafter described, and use a good model and a fine amber oil varnish, may produce instruments which, 150 years hence, will shine out resplendent as the best of the Cremona or Brescian violins. Even in our own day violin makers occasionally startle themselves by hitting upon a violin of extraordinary tone, and get a higher price for it, though it has cost them not a particle more labour. The buyer of a cheap violin, if he have a knowing one to guide him in his choice by trying over a dozen or more of the horrible Mirecourt fiddles, like as peas in a plate, will often secure one immeasurably superior to the rest. The wood has chanced to be that part of the log where the best tone was to be got and the relation of the parts has been a happy hit. Let me here, therefore, throw out a hint to those who would buy
3A Good Violin very Cheap.
5Look over a number of these Mirecourt fiddles "in the white"—that is, without varnish on them, in which state they may be bought from any important dealer at from 15s. to 30s. Have them strung up, and test them for the tone which pleases you best. Then having picked out the best, have that violin varnished with a good amber oil varnish of the colour which you most admire. Be in no hurry to get the violin back, and let the varnish be applied in a great many thin coats, at such intervals that each has time to dry thoroughly. Be in no hurry to get bridge and strings on it, but let the violin hang up in an airy room for six months or a year. Then string it up carefully, and you will probably have a fiddle as good as many costing £20. The reason for buying your cheap fiddle "in the white" is that the horrible spirit varnish used on these factory fiddles is clapped on the bare wood, which sucks in the shellac like a sponge, and no amount of scrubbing with ammonia and a hard brush will altogether remove the impediment.
7I do not recommend this as the best course for every one, as it takes time and patience and some knowledge of tone; and the gauging of the thicknesses in these violins is often very imperfect; but when a man has not the money to buy a first-
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