Think About that Chinese Fiddle

This is NOT the promised third posting about changes we are going to make to www.FiddleandBowStore.com. That is coming soon, but this rant came out of my fingertips first. If it sounds a bit like sour grapes. I'll admit to it now in order to save you the trouble of pointing this out in your emails (why don't people use the comment feature of blogs?)

We at Rickert & Ringholz have been able to determine that a lot of violin students (actually, their parents), as well as a surprisingly large number of adult fiddlers, get "great deals" on instruments from China. All the so-called top-name online stores (won't name them...can't afford to be sued this week) sell Chinese instruments, using marketing verbage in the product descriptions that is the equivalent of polishing a t**d.

The ready availability of Chinese instruments is a primary reason for why people don't buy high quality instruments, which happen to be expensive. I guess we are all looking for a great deal...you know, the hundred year fiddle from the old man at the flea market or yard sale who doesn't know its real value, the $100 "steal" on eBay, and so on. OK, every now and then you get lucky, especially at yard sales. Whether this is morally defensible is another question altogether (the correct answer is NO. it's not!).

As far as eBay goes, you are more often than not going to end up with a piece of junk or a NEW Chinese instrument made in the "Italian" or the "French" or the whatever tradition that sounds classy. Ask yourself this: do you really think that a professional eBay vendor (look at the seller's number of sales when you buy) is going to NOT make a profit? Think again.

This brings us to back to Chinese violins. The cheap ones are either painted or so heavily varnished that you can't tell what instrument is under all of that gloss. The better ones, costing several hundred dollars, have a very distinctive feature...perfect "old spruce" top and unbelievably well-flamed sides and back. Hate to burst your bubble, but the flaming is a really good paint job under the varnish and the perfect "old spruce" top is a printed shrink "skin", sort of like that used on cheap wall paneling. We'll show you some pictures after we have our upcoming "radical de-construction" of a Chinese violin. This may involve fireworks that are legal in the States where they are sold...look for it on YouTube under DoctorFiddle in the next week or so.

The techniques mentioned above keep the costs down, which keeps the sales price low, but the unethically cheap labor really keeps the costs and sales price down.

Think about all of these things as you play your POS fiddle made by underpaid, and often under-aged labor.

To paraphrase William Morris, one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement (known chiefly for his wallpaper prints), who was no Angel himself as a business-person, but who wrote many on-point essays: Quality products designed to last a long time cost more money than garbage that merchants who provide it to you are secretly ashamed to sell you...that is if they let themselves introspect beyond the greatest cop-out of the last several centuries..."It's just business; nothing personal."

Note: Needless to say, we don't sell Chinese instruments at www.FiddleandBowStore.com. The closest thing we have to a sweat shop is our own design studio and workshops in Atlanta and Birmingham.