Larry, you're right, violins are so fascinating, each one is different & each has a way to play it. The best Cremonese instruments sometimes may be "hard to play" but the violinist has to explore how to bring out the best in it.
The other factor is bows, most people don't realize how important the bow is to the over all sound of the violin. I've heard bows make the same violin sound like 2 different fiddles! I once had violinist Ray Chen at my place & I recorded his Strad with 2 different bows.....even on a CD transfer of the tape, people said 1 bow sounded like the winner of a competition & the other bow's sound sounded like 3rd place! It's like our audio systems, it's the total interaction of all the components.
Ray even made a violin I made "sound" like his Strad......nobody else ever made it sound like that! With fiddles - the player is everything.
The other factor is bows, most people don't realize how important the bow is to the over all sound of the violin. I've heard bows make the same violin sound like 2 different fiddles! I once had violinist Ray Chen at my place & I recorded his Strad with 2 different bows.....even on a CD transfer of the tape, people said 1 bow sounded like the winner of a competition & the other bow's sound sounded like 3rd place! It's like our audio systems, it's the total interaction of all the components.
Ray even made a violin I made "sound" like his Strad......nobody else ever made it sound like that! With fiddles - the player is everything.
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