Even if you’re not a fan of classical music and bitchin’ violin solos, you’re probably aware that there’s something about Stradivarius violins that makes them special, since why else would they be worth millions of dollars each? It can’t be all because of the name, right? Well as it turns out, it might be.
Firstly, before anyone gets the wrong idea, we’re absolutely not saying that Stradivarius violins aren’t of exceptional quality, Antonio Stradivari was and still is one of the finest luthiers (baby violin makers) to have ever lived. What we are saying though is that modern luthiers have caught up with, if not surpassed his level of craftsmanship, as you’d expect with 300 years of technological advancement on their side.
For example, in a double-blind experiment conducted a few years ago using the prized violins of people taking part in in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, a group of professional violinists and judges universally rated a several hundred year old, million dollar Stradivari worse than a violin that had literally been built three days earlier. The Stradivari rated worse on everything from sound quality to feel and when the participants were asked which violin they’d prefer to take home with them, only 8 (of 21) chose the violin that could pay off the student loans of an entire city block. Far less than you’d expect considering the universal praise that is heaped on Stradivari by judges and violinists alike.
The thing is, the people involved in this experiment were experts on violin playing and history, if they couldn’t tell the difference between these things with any degree of accuracy, average folks like us haven’t got a freaking chance. What makes it worse though is that the newer violins in the experiment were consistently rated as the best all round, yet the guy who made those will never be as well known as Antonio Stradivari. Then again, that’s probably a good thing, if that guy knew he could charge 10 million dollars for his instruments, children the world over would be stuck learning to play the cello at school.
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