The Piedmont Region and its Violin Makers

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
Matt Lammers and Amy Tobin

Here in America, we tend to think that we have the monopoly on the idea of 'the great melting pot.' When the rest of the world began their exodus to 'the new world,' New York became an amalgamation of peoples and cultures from everywhere else. We can not, however, lay claim to this phenomenon. In fact, the Piedmont region of Italy was a melting pot of nationalities and cultures long before this happened on our own soil.

The Piedmont region of Italy includes

Why a Frog? Why Are There Frogs on Bows?

Written by Matt Lammers of Fein Violins

It's one of those curiosities that disappeared with age and experience, one of those elephants in the room you asked about as a beginner, and your teacher shrugged it off with a puzzled expression telling you it wasn't worth losing sleep over. It became a part of your vocabulary and was never given a second thought, but in the back of your head you've always wondered: "Why on earth do we call this the frog?" Here at Fein Violins we embrace and resurrect our own childish curiosity and hope to relax the furled brows of confused, [used-to-be] young musicians everywhere.

The frog of a bow is a simple, yet intricate thing

Customers of Fein Violins: Comments and Reviews

Here's our running blog with comments and reviews from our customers:

Andy Fein, Violin & Bow Maker, Fein Violins

Hi Andy,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help with my students! Thought you might like to know one of my violinists just got one of your bows to solo with her high school orchestra, another is concertmaster of her school on one of your violins and another got into AllState ork playing on one of your bows. :D We appreciate you!

Jackie 

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I'm just so happy to have a violin that's COMFORTABLE for me now as well as sounding good.

Judy

(F. Costa 7/8 outfit)

Hi Amy,

Wow wow and wow, what a beautiful violin, my wife and I were just totally amazed when we opened the case, I can't thank Andy and you enough, I will write a

Why Scrolls?

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

Scroll of a Gasparo da Salo viola, Brescia circa 1609

In my role as a violin maker and shop owner, I often hear string players searching for an instrument say, "I don't really care what it looks like, I'm only interested in the sound." To which I usually reply, "If looks didn't count, we could paint them all black and use a square block for the scroll." Obviously, in violin family instruments, looks count. We're all interested in the color and beauty of the varnish, the beauty of the wood, and the artistic details such as the f holes, the arching, and the scroll. The scroll is

Why f Holes?

f holes, The 'Harrison' Stradivarius circa 1693

image from The National Music Museum

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

It's pretty hard to miss the very distinctive feature of the violin family's sound holes. The f hole. They are almost like a violin maker's fingerprints. Very distinctive and a true sign of a maker's skill.

 f-holes of a Stradivarius on display in the Royal Palace of Madrid

But why f holes? There are many other sound hole patterns that would probably work as well.