Andrew Hooker Violins

• Violins

• Violas

• Cellos

• Bows

• Cases etc.

About the Violin Market

Basic school instruments are easy. They can be bought off the shelf in most towns. They don't cost much, and it's not a disaster if, as often happens, they are damaged beyond repair. But what if a child shows aptitude for their instrument, and wants a better one? No problem for the flute and french horn players - these things are technology, and made in factories. As a general rule, the more you pay the higher the specification of the instrument. You want one like your friend's? Just buy the same model.

String players, though, are suddenly confronted with an entirely different market. Their instruments command fine art prices. They are hand-made and no two are alike. Pity the poor parents who are suddenly expected to look at violins in the same way as an art connoisseur looks at pictures . . . and, as often as not, to pay the same sort of price. How did this state of affairs arise? The answer's a long one, and starts at the end of the 18th Century.

Until then woodwind and brasswind were just as expensive as violins and cellos, but changing musical fashion altered this forever. Orchestras became bigger, instruments became louder, and the actual pitch became higher. The baroque of Bach and Handel gave way to the classical of Mozart and Haydn, which in turn was replaced by the romanticism of Beethoven and Brahms. Bassoons and trumpets kept pace with advances in technology, but violinists were stuck: apart from chinrests and shoulder rests you can't add anything to a violin to make it easier to play, or acoustically more perfect. So violinists (and violists and cellists, of course) started using stronger strings. It didn't do their fiddles much good, and so these instruments were modified in various ways to accept the far greater strain of modern strings tuned up to a higher level. Thus, an 18th Century piece of woodwind or brasswind can't cope with 19th Century music - and these old instruments were neglected and became worth very little. But stringed instruments, after modification, worked very well - old master violins simply shot up in price, and have never looked back. Today, a historically-fascinating and very rare 18th Century clarinet, for example, commands a "collector's" price, whereas a violin of the same age, typical of tens of thousands of others, fetches a far higher "fine art" price.

About the market in violins, violas and cellos

How to try a stringed instrument

An instrument buyer's guide - more about trying instruments

Who made the instrument? About labels and attributions

Repairs and damage - what to look out for

About setting up instruments soundposts, strings &c.

About new instruments