Re:The World’s Best Violins Sing Like Humans
by analog31 on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @09:45PM
(#17130936)
But there have been some innovations, as evidenced by the Stradivari instruments themselves having received subtle upgrades over the years.
Strings have been modernized twice: First with steel, and now with a lot of contemporary strings having synthetic cores, all within the past century.
And then there's the bow. Stradivarius could not have known what one of his fiddles would sound like in its present form under a modern bow.
+1 I read this book years ago, which follows a violin maker in building a custom instrument. It's fascinating - https://www.amazon.com/Violin-Maker-Centuries-Old-Tradition-...
The classical guitar world is batshit insane for a whole different set of reasons, but at least innovation exists, even if it's massively controversial. Luthiers like Smallman and Dammann can make genuine efforts to advance the state-of-the-art without dooming themselves to penury.