Are there any Violin or Cello players out there?

Tom, this endpin you are talking about, can we see it, where is information available.

Guido - I know more about guitars than violins but certain things are common. Everybody knows about presence, projection, sustain, separation and tone but the tone is mentioned most often (simplification). There were attempts to build synthetic guitar to no avail - perhaps because of complexity of sound.

Another issue is price of the instrument and our American set of values. There is a luthier in the small German town who makes absolutely perfect guitars (Matthew Daman). David Russell plays on one of them. They cost about $20k - typical for guitar of this class but wait period to get one is 9 years. From the business point of view it doesn't make any sense (why not charge more?) but for him 9 years of waiting is a better prize than money.

"Carbon fiber is not a part of this musical alignment."

Interesting. . . why is it so?

Guido

Yes, I went through music school as a violinist. But what are you wanting this instrument for? $5,000 is indeed cheap for a "fine" cello . . . but it's still WAY too much money to spend if you're buying one for a beginner.

And if the musician in question isn't a beginner, then what matters most is not how "fine" the instrument is, but the synergy between the instrument and the person playing it. For an instrumentalist, finding the right instrument is a personal journey that's completely inseperable from their concept of their own sound . . . and ultimately of themselves as people.

I'm no Violin player but we have a young virtuoso in B.C. Canada Ms. Choi. And she claims her Stradaveri can never be made again because of global warming. (won't get the right kind of growth for the wood)

If you believe that piffle then you'll probably believe any nonsense...