Not so long ago, I had hit a little snag in my instrument allocation for various concerts... now, I'm primarily an Early Music specialist, and that means that I have multiple violins (and violas/d'amore) for different pitches and periods. Some are geared towards earlier Baroque music, and others are suited for later Classical or early Romantic eras in their builds (both internal and external). Plus, some are strung with heavier gut strings for lower pitches, and others are for the higher pitches with a more even spread of silver wound strings to match with thinner gauge strings.... and then there is the bow matching, as bows evolved quite a lot between the Baroque and Romantic eras.

Anyway, the other week, I found that the higher-pitched and later era violin that I was planning to use for a symphony orchestra concert as actually in use already for a Classical era concert/presentation that I was doing with my wife in the same week. Which meant that I didn't have an instrument available for the modern symphony orchestra... I was tempted to use a cheap bash violin that I use for teaching, but that would have been a touch unprofessional... and so, I put out a call to see if I could borrow an instrument for the week.

... I was sort of surprise by the volume of positive responses, but in the end, I went with an instrument by a supportive local luthier. In return, he suggested that I come in and talk about my instruments and what drew me to them... how I came to find them, was it love at first sight/play, and what was it was that drew me to them. Anyway, we had a bit of a freewheeling chat about the instruments pictured above, and then a little bit of a play as well.

It was sort of nice to talk about instruments from two different perspectives, one from the musician's side... and the other from the luthier's side. I am always sort of a bit humbled by how little I know of the structural side of things for my tools!

On the way home though... I was suddenly struck by the fact that the back seat was sort of worth more than the car that I was driving! EEEP....

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