At the Violin Gallery, we sell the Alunna and Antico stringed instrument brands. Alunna and Antico both use only the finest, old-growth, high-altitude trees, harvested from Italy, Slovakia, Asia, Romania, and Southern Russia. After the tree is felled, the wood is cut and dried for at least ten years before being used to craft a violin.
Even with good quality material sometimes a violin doesn’t turn out just right. All of our instruments are all inspected for quality by professional luthiers and undergo a meticulous 10 Point Inspection with skilled-hand adjustments to ensure quality and playability.
We use a custom rating matrix to identify different strengths and provide a quality comparison between our instruments and other brands. The Violin Gallery Tonal-quality Inspection identifies the unique qualities of each instrument. A quality instrument will score between a 5 and 10—popular online brands generally score much lower in the 1-4 range. Each of the twelve tonal elements is rated separately and an average score is given to each instrument.
Our rating system judges power, clarity, balance, evenness, warmth, richness, depth, smoothness, brilliance, responsiveness, edginess, and resonance. And yes, they are all different and help identify whether a violin has a good tone. That’s why people buy instruments from the Violin Gallery.
The power of our violins is measured with a decibel meter and rated for power. This is an important factor when considering an instrument. Violinists never wish for a quiet or weak instrument, especially when playing with an orchestra or symphony. The player can relax if they are confident that their instrument will be heard. Extra energy is required to produce a similar tone in a lesser instrument, which you would have to muscle out by applying more pressure and dropping closer to the bridge, which brings tension to major muscle groups in the neck, shoulders, and arms. Tension in a violin player translates into a rigid bowing technique, compromised tone, and causes fatigue.
When practicing an instrument with a focus on mastery, a quality instrument makes all the difference. Purchasing an instrument needs to be a thoughtful process. Investing in a violin needs to have more important factors than the cheapest online deal or the cuteness of the pink or blue-glitter finish. You are buying a violin for a violin player, not a bowling ball or a bass boat.
At the Violin Gallery, we take the guesswork out of determining whether you are getting a quality instrument. When a student is confident in their instrument, their confidence in themselves increases. Being frustrated is a part of doing something new and we would rather have a student be frustrated by their lack of ability than their instrument being sub-standard. Practice can fix poor playing but there is only so much you can do with a painted box with strings. Purchasing an instrument from the Violin Gallery assures you that you are making the correct decision. Come in and we can help you as you begin your journey into a lifetime of music enjoyment.
