Why some violins are so expensive?

Have you heard the name of violins called  “Stradivarius” ?

They were made by the genius violin maker in 17th century Italy, Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) .

About 600 of his violins are still around.

Some are owned by foundations, museums, collectors and violinists.

I’ve heard the price can be 13 million dollars!!!

Anyway, some violins like Stradivarius are so expensive, because:

first of all, there are not so many of them around, like the violins made in factories.

They are rather rare..

Second, especially at the time of Stradivarius, he was able to access  perfect quality wood for the violin making. We now have such high technology like scanners, 3D printers, etc and we can try to make copies of Stradivarius, however, we can never obtain the same type of wood material like Stradivari did. That means we may never be able to make the same kind of violins. Stradivarius violins are the wonderful work of a genius violin maker with perfect material.

Third, on top of being already something special, Stradivarius violins are aging very nicely, adding even more quality to them. Through time, the water in the wood evaporates and it gains an even better quality of tone for a musical instrument.

In addition, they have been played by wonderful players and historically known masters of violin, and are kept resonating properly, which adds the fame of “played by so and so”. Good violinists know how to take good care of violins, too. They’ve been played well and been taken good care.

And of course,  wonderful instruments are known to provide many varieties of tone color with depth, as well as power, in order to express gradations of different nuances, as well as power with which the sound can go through big concert halls.

There are some aspects of “needs” and “supply” which definitely  affect the price, too.

There are so many things to talk about, but we need to get going on your violin lesson. 🙂

Thank you for a good question ! We’ll talk more when we have the chance.