Books › Violin tone and violin makers, 1916 › scan 32
Scan 32
Violin tone and violin makers, 1916
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1VIOLIN TONE
3well and good. If not, he must be satisfied in the possession of a curiosity, and accept, with what patience he can command, the lack of tone.
5For a century or more the toneless pariahs among "genuine old" fiddles have roamed from place to place, and from country to country. Like the Wandering Jew, they are never at rest. Countless amateurs have owned them, treasured them, found them out, and sent them forth again. Some bear the scars of fruitless operations, for it is the fashion among the inexperienced to attribute the lack of tone in all violins to faults of adjustment. In one way or another the attempt is made to accomplish what the maker of the fiddle failed to do. As to this, there is a difference between adjusting a fine-toned violin, and trying by the same means, or by any means whatsoever, to create tone in a fiddle that never possessed any. The many aids and improvers of tone may, indeed, alter for the better that which could not well be worse, but to say that any of them will "create the tone of a fine Italian" is a statement very far from fact.
7I have now defined the position of the old violin as a musical instrument, and as a curiosity. The new violin has no status which the expert can recognise, because it is worth
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