I tried some violas today.

My favorite was one made by Erik Hesle in Trondhein in 1982. The bridge was a little too low, so the strings hit the fingerboard and buzzed, but I really liked the dark sound. The response was pretty good too. It was 6000$ and was 16 1/4". It was a manageable size for me.

I tried one by Roberto Defanti, made in 1983; it was 16 1/2, 8000$ and I really liked the C string, which had the most "viola-like" sound, but was a little unwieldy for me because of the size. The lower bout was quite fat. It was yellow in colour.

I tried a 16" Nicolas Vuillaume, 1849 (? - hard to tell from label), made in Mirecourt and selling for 6000$. I wasn't particularly taken with it.

I tried a Gaetane Chiocci made in 1868 in Padoua. It's timbre was medium, not what I was looking for, but it had a nice eveness in tone on all the strings. It was selling for 17,500$

I also tried a Giuseppe Ornati - made in Milan, 1954 - it had the best response and was really loud, but far too bright for my taste. It was very orange. Selling for 45,000$


Anybody out there know of some dark-sounding 16 1/2" cut-away violas? All the nice ones are too bright for me!

I tried a few violins - notably one used by some Norwegian soloist one day when his instrument broke and he had to use a replacement. All the other violins sounded like crap after playing that one. I was afraid to ask about the price...


Edit 04/04/10

I just found the notes I made on some violas I tried in Montreal in August 2009. I'll post them here. They're very brief.

Paulus 16 1/2" $8125 - my favorite that I tried out of this batch. (serial #080)

Hoibakk 16 3/4" $7000 - liked it fine

Cormier 16 1/4" $13 000 - holy **** nice instrument. It was too bright for my taste, but the response and playability were unbelievable. It was so sensitive that the adjustment period would be quite a while before I'd stop making scratchy sounds on it because of the sensitivity.

Bauer 16" $15 000 it was very bright and great response, but I liked the Cormier more

Lavoije 16 1/8" $12 000 - again liked the Cormier more.

Duplain 16 1/4" $6000 - very nice.

Joel Samuel Rion 17" $8000 - too big!!!

Schmidt 16 1/4" $8000 not as nice as Paulus, which was more playable


Wilfer 15 1/2" $5000 - nice

Seilenhof 15" $5000 - okay, but you just can't get the sound you need at 15".

I did these trials with a super kun rest and chose a Marco Raposo bow selling for $1300 as my favorite.

A friend made an interesting comment the other day. With the nicer instruments, he said, it's the dolce tone that projects.

I want a cutaway model around 16 1/4 - 16 1/2" for about 8000$ eventually. For now, I'm looking for something around $3000 and I want to get it by January, so I have time to adjust before I perform Kol Nidrei with the symphony.

Todd Ehle talks about double & triple string crossings

For anyone who is having trouble with multiple string crossings, you should check out Todd Ehle's video on how to avoid hitting the in-between strings. It's really a very clever technique. Check it out:

Kreutzer #10