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Pah! Valuable? Not a pre-CBS in sight.


Happy Jack
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[quote]
[color=#292931][font=Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif][size=4]The Gariel Strad of 1717, which was worth £6.3m in 2012 and will only increase in value[/size][/font][/color]
[/quote]

It's this sort of thinking that causes problems. There is a massive amount of fraud and manipulation in the world of classical instruments. This is a good read: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9616021/The-great-Stradivarius-swindle.html

There's a great book out there somewhere about this (it's on my shelf and I can't remember the name).

What I think is great is that the instruments are, for the most part, still played. Can't say that about vintage Fenders - including some of my own (sadly)

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My friend is a cellist. She was my composition tutor at uni, and bought her cello in to a lecture the one day. She played it and I can't tell you the sound it produced, it was so beautiful.

It dates back to 18 oh something. I remember her saying it has survived Napoleon and two world wars.

:)

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I've been lucky enough to be in the same room as some of those instruments and artists and hear them play through work.
Fascinating to take part in auditions for BBC young musician and hear judges say great things about the entrant but then telling them their 2 grand instrument isn't good enough!
I've played a few Steinway model D's and its amazing the difference between them.
Watching Lang Lang playing in the living room of a renowned piano competition organiser almost blew my ear drums.

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Very interesting, thanks.

In other news, a pre CBS Fender Jaguar guitar was estimated at being with £300 on Bargain Hunt yesterday. In the auction it went for £1000... I must have missed something, maybe it was a bitsa?

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[quote name='Stu-khag' timestamp='1502363721' post='3350927']
Watching Lang Lang playing in the living room of a renowned piano competition organiser almost blew my ear drums.
[/quote]

He's a bombastic player, isn't he? I don't know a great deal of the classical repertoire, but I've alway enjoyed his technically perfect interpretations. I know some people claim he's a little automatic, but perhaps that's snobbery.

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There is some fraud and naughtiness in the string instrument world, but it's mostly fueled by people wanting something for nothing and taking no account of provenance and not doing their research. My double bass is probably - almost certainly - around 1830, built in one of countless workshops in the Mittenwald of Germany. No label, no name so it's almost worthless to a collector. To a player? Sounds fabulous, focussed, rich, loud and even. Easy to play and generally great. If it had a label and a good makers name on the label I could probably ask £30k for it. Would the label make it intrinsically a better bass?

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£6.3m on loan from the Bank of America, £7.8m on loan from a wealthy individual benefactor, £4.8m on loan from Evil Megacorp Inc...

And folks here are too paranoid to take their 2 grand Sadowsky out of the house to a gig in case it gets a tiny scratch on it... imagine how Nicola Benedetti feels as she climbs up the rickety, semi-dark stage stairs in a ball gown and impractical shoes...!

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[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1502749411' post='3353321']
A lot more effort and skill goes into making a classical instrument. Even the most prized pre-CBS Fenders are production line instruments built to a design intended wholly to cut corners and get them out the door quickly.
[/quote]
I agree totally. Its a different league of craftsmanship.

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A friend of mine at Uni went to her first viola lesson on the course. As a person of short stature she had a 7/8 instrument, and the infamously officious teacher asked to have a look, loudly declaring it was unlikely to be sufficient for the challenging repertoire my friend was about to tackle on the syllabus. One glance through the f hole and the instrument was handed back. My friend was asked if it was genuine, to which the answer was yes. No mention of her choice of instrument was made again during her time doing her degree. My friend's dad was rather high up in the oil business and had bought her £32000 worth of Stradivarius. To be fair the thing was immense.

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