Wafflestomper
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To be honest I don’t know much about what the SW has to offer..
Most of my experience has been around Idaho, Montana etc. I don’t really know any accompanists down here, so that would be an issue. I’d probably like to go there just to listen and check them out maybe.Probably not going to do anything until I move back north, and I think most of their stuff is in the summer. So that would put me into next year. Hopefully plenty of time to get my ducks in a row so I at least don’t *totally* embarrass myself 🙂
That being said.. I think I found a song that might compliment that round.
I’m probably going to try Old Straw Bonnet.
While not obscure or totally unusual, it’s kinda got an interesting sound. Might be a good mix with those other two.See, I’m not a *total* non-conformist after all.
If you know of any good contests or festivals within driving distance, I’d be interested. I thought there was supposed to be something or other in or around Phoenix. Unfortunately I’m pretty tied up this summer up until September or so. Maybe next year… unless something happens in the dead center of winter like you mentioned.
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Hey Diane.
I met with him on Saturday to try the violin. Really nice quirky little Italian guy. Retired from the LV Symphony, the guy could really play. Super nice guy though.. you could tell he really loved playing, and really loves his fiddles. Once he started he played for almost 10 minutes.. dude just got lost in it.Jenny said I had this look in my eyes like “My turn! Gimme! Gimme!”
He finally forked it over, and I played a couple tunes. Dude was a little taken back that I was playing fiddle songs. Don’t think he expected that.. but he thought that was pretty neat and had about a million questions.
Then he had this look in his eyes like “Gimme Gimme!” so he played for another few minutes and we went back and forth. Told some war stories.
But on to the fiddle…
The varnish is really neat. A very rich brown with almost orange highlights. One small repair that looked well done. I could tell this guy was super OCD about his instruments, which made me happy.
The first thing I noticed was the volume of this thing. Much more punch than the others I’ve tried over the last couple months. The bowing was effortless, in fact, I had to back off of it a little.. already has me thinking I need a light bow (I use a coda Luma, as I’m afraid to take anything wood out of the house).
It seems very clear and precise. I played Black and White Rag, which is one of my muddier sounding songs (only due to my crappy playing and sausage like fingers), and I was able to immediately notice that the notes were much cleaner. It feels like a very “fast” fiddle in that regard.
Playing in 3rd position was much easier as well.. I even managed to do the double stop slides in Wednesday Night Waltz with out feeling like my ears were being attacked with a cheese grater.He had a set of old Indfel strings on it, not sure which in particular.. they looked like the obviously needed changing.
It is much much brighter than I am used to. Not in a bad way, Im just noticing I have to play waltzes a little more conservatively, as I don’t have to work this fiddle quite so hard.
The G string was’nt quite as sweet as it was on the cursed Barnabetti, but it was cleaner, brighter and full of loud.I could tell straight off that this fiddle would help my playing. I can focus less on trying to get certain “things” to sound right, and spend that energy doing other “things”… that doesn’t make sense, but its the only way I can explain it.
Not that what I’m playing now is horrible, its still a nice fiddle. This one is just different, and unique enough in its qualities, that I decided I wanted it. And he really wasn’t asking an exorbitant amount for what I feel the fiddle had to offer.
I met with him over a Starbucks the following day, told more war stories. I made him an offer and took it home.
He said he needed to sell some other ones.. I got the impression that his wife told him no more fiddles until you get rid of some of what you have.. (Funny, my wife told me the same thing).Said he had a nice one that had to go for around 20k.
I told him I could only afford $200.
He laughed.
I laughed.
We all laughed.
Scooby-Doo ending.Took it home and immediately swapped the old strings out for Helicores.
This was a mistake.
My left ear is going deaf.
Also will probably put a Gold E on it.May have to find some strings on the warmer side. I’ll give them some time to break in though.
As far as the setup goes, I’ll play it for a bit then I’ll probably take it in to Juan to get it a physical.
I also might see about having him throw in some of those Wittner pegs you were talking about… Do you know if they have to be sized? Not sure if there is some kind of one size fits all measurement or how that works.But all in all..
I give this fiddle a 7/10.
I thought after I took it home, I would reject all others. But it turns out I still love them too… just for different reasons.I love it. But I guess really, the search never ends.
Too bad I’m not made of money.
Who needs food anyway 😀—WF
