99 - The Stradivarius Mystery

i remember reading somewhere that Stradivarius violins were treated with chemicals in the wood. A scientist analyzed a piece of one of the violins and found these chemicals inside of it.

if you use any kind of cleaner on your instrument it will leave behind chemicals. We musicians have to be very careful not to use too much cleaner too often because it will actually degrade the wood and leave the instrument with a soggy sound.

not to mention how careful strad owners have to be doing anything to their instruments

top violinists today like Anne Sophie Mutter, Ruggiero Ricci, Boris Belkin, even Stern and other great names play very ofthen on Modern instruments. To play a Stradivari or Guarneri it is rewarding for a violinist both technical and FINANCIAL. Stradivari's name produces a lot of interest and many go to the concert hall just to hear a stradivari, rather then a good soloist.

As a violin maker I encourage everybody ho wants to know the truth to read competent books in this subject like S.Sacconi's book ironycal called "the 'secrets' of Stradivari". Sacconi was a leading 20th century violin maker and researcher in Stradivari's work. He, along with a few others produced very close results in terms of quality with the great Maestro. There are others besides Sacconi that are making very good violins who still are living today. I can name Roberto Regazzi, Roger Hargrave

2/2 A stradivary is a wonderful example of functionality and beauty. The cremonese school satarted with Andreea Amati, before the Ice Age started! He made violins superior to almost evryone else (except a few) and HE DIDN'T USED "MAGIC" WOOD. Sadly, the knowledge was lost afther Stradivari's sons died, no treaty was written regarding acoustics, proportions etc, and now we have to play the detectives. Few know that Stradivari also made poor sounding violins from the same wood.

with all the respect to the climate expert and the tree ring expert, they have no profound understanding of how violins actually work! If they are right, then the other 50 at least good violin makers of that time had to produce same or close results! FALS! The "secret" is the subject of irony by leading violin makers today and yesterday. The violin it is way more complex than anyone can imagine regarding acoustics, manipulation of air mass, compression, weight and DENSITY.

@mrkringles Good argument! =)

Good quality wood plays a part, but I'm sure skills are involved too. Other luthiers during that period probably have access to such woods too. We don't see all of them making such fine instruments like the strads.

I think those people should just leave the strads and it's maker alone. After all, what he did to the strads only the maker himself know the answer and the answer is obviously "as dead as the maker". Case closed.

i have 2 imaginary Stradivarius violins

...The tree rings were closer together and the wood denser because trees don't grow as fast when it's cold (you know how one tree ring equals one year). The ring is actually how much the tree grows in the winter and everything else is the summer. So trees during the Little Ice Age (look it up) were denser and made better violins. The few degrees average temperature difference today has NO difference. The tree died a long time ago...