Today's WTH news involving Strad cellos.....

AirCap

AirCap

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http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5013093/ns/us_news/t/stolen--year-old-stradivarius-found/#.WbBn5saQxLO

As if all this stuff isn't amazing enough, I have to ask so many questions. The main one being, how the hell does one FORGET to bring the 3.5 million dollar Stradivarius inside the house?
 
Well, how many load-ins have you done where you have to leave the truck with a big pile of gear inside as you get that super reverb down the stairs of that basement club?  ok, for me I only used a super for a couple of shows, but still..

Back to the story:  CD rack!  <shudder>
 
A valuable lesson in perspective. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Or something.
 
D1: Nice CD rack, dude!
D2: Wild, innit? But, I'm thinking of puttin' all them CDs in the cloud and ditchin' the rack. Takes up too much space.
D1: I'll buy it off'n ya! Whaddaya want for it?
D2: $3 mil oughta cover it.
D1: Seems kinda stiff...
D2: Well, it used to be a Stradivarious cello, but then I had to put a lotta work into it...
D1: Yeah. I'll bet. Still, it's used...
D2: No, it's vintage!
 
What amazes me is that the thief obviously did not know the significance of the instrument or got cold feet and dumped it after stealing it.

Then to follow up a Nurse, finds something that is obviously an instrument in unusual circumstances and does not bother to inform the police straight away but only did so after seeing a news report.
 
They said the top was broken. She may have seen that and thought "it's old, it's broke, it's by the trash, somebody tossed it."
 
You and me both. And she did have a different thought, but as a decorator.
 
If you saw  a broken classical guitar in the trash, would you immediately suspect it of being a Bouchet? (did you even know that name btw? I didn't, and I'm a guitar player)  People throw out old broken instruments all the time. 99.999% of them are Sears catalog trash or equivalent. Especially if you weren't a guitar player, it's doubtful an ordinary person would automatically assume it was a Stradivarius, and if they did, they'd be delusional.
 
I also wonder if the cellist still has a job with the symphony.... I mean... He left a Strad outside!
 
What about the great story of Peter Frampton, reunited with his guitar over 30 years after he was told it had been destroyed in a plane crash :

https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/peter-frampton-reunited-with-best-guitar-after-31-years/?_r=0
 
The symphony doesn't own the cello, typically no musician playing for their supper can afford one.  I believe most are owned by a wealthy patron who just gets his kicks out of owning it, and then allows some musician they deem worthy to play it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments
 
First of all - great story about the Frampton Les Paul.

Second - I happen to know 2 local violinists who own fine vintage violins - one is an Amati and the other is a Stainer. They play them in public whenever they can. What amazed me, was the price paid for some bows! The lady who owns the Amati paid over $125,000 for one of her bows. As I understand, for violinists - the smooth and easy action of a bow is what they covet, not low string action like us guitar guys.
 
$125.000 for a bow? Must be one of those highly reliced ones

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:icon_jokercolor:
 
I played the violin for quite awhile, and I can attest to the importance of the bow.  String action isn't adjustable on a violin (without some luthiery), and you need the break angle to stay relatively high to hold the bridge on, as it's not actually attached.  Coupled with the very short scale, you end up with some pretty high-tension strings.  Starting on the violin and switching to guitar is fairly straightforward.

Having a bow that you get along with is essential, as the different bowing techniques are a huge part of the timbres a bowed instrument can make.  You need to be able to get anywhere on the bow easily and precisely to take advantage of those different techniques.
 
Violins are freakin' hard to play, slaps some frets in it, and get some geared tunners while you'll at it, it's [InsertThisYear] guys!
 
amigarobbo said:
Violins are freakin' hard to play, slaps some frets in it, and get some geared tunners while you'll at it, it's [InsertThisYear] guys!
Click to expand...

:laughing7:  Frets on a violin don't do much good.  The notes get very close together rather quickly as you go up the fingerboard.  As for geared tuners, upright basses have those.

There are fretted violins and geared tuning pegs for violins available, though they wouldn't be considered "traditional" by any means.  If guitarists think that "vintage-correct" is the way to capture the "mojo" of those 50s and 60s guitars, violinists agree - only their holy grail instruments are 350 years old.
 
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