Why are stradivarius violins supreme in the violin world?
Antonio Stradivari DID make more of the finest violins in the world by any one person, but many were actually surpassed by several that Guarneri ‘del Gesu’ made. He did experiment with some slight changes in pattern/shape, and he did use the finest woods he could obtain. Much of it came from ‘junk’ material frequently carried on board ships in order to balance them. He was said to put his fiddles together totally unfinished first, then to have them played. From there, he could determine exactly which of his varnishes to use on each, in order to bring out its finest sound. It has long been claimed that his ‘secret’ was always in those varnishes, but I find it difficult to ignore the fact that he was using very old spruce and maple to build his top, sides, and backs. Those fine old woods he had access to always could be made into the best-sounding instruments. All his instruments were built so long ago, that they had very short necks on them. By somewhere around the latter decades of the
