Ante up for the game

I finally did buy a fiddle. No, make that two.

The first fiddle I bought is a 1930 French instrument made in Lyons by a luthier named D. Emile Boulangeot. I chose this one because of its smooth and creamy lower registers, sweet middle and upper registers, good condition and also because the violin shop from which I purchased it has a 100% trade-up policy. My Boulangeot sounds very close to the tone of my instructor's 1890 German $10,000 instrument. In fact, when she first heard it she looked worried and picked up her own instrument to compare them. The online violin stores routinely list Boulangeots at $5,000-$8,000 more than I paid and Boulangeot is kindly regarded in William Henley's classic reference book "Universal Dictionary of Violin and Bow Makers":

Boulangeot, Emile 1877-1944
Gave all possible artistic impulse to reproducing the Stradivarius model. Accomplished his work with something besides mere mechanical precision. Oil varnish of a delightful reddish-orange tint. Principal maker to the conservatoire at Lyons and the Symphony Orchestras. Produced 175 violins, 7 violas, and 28 cellos.


I figured that I could always resell the instrument for at least as much as I paid or trade it up at the shop where I bought it.

However, I discovered that I sometimes was unable to pull the same sweet tone from this fiddle that the symphony concertmaster who sold it to me and my teacher (also a concertmaster) were able to attain. No great surprise, but a little discouraging. On a whim, I visited another local violin shop and, while plinking around on some of their step-up instruments, found a Rudoulph Doetsch model with a clear, ringing tone. It did not take long to discover that I could tune and play this instrument more easily than the Boulangeot, so I tried it at home and bought it the next day.

Since then, I play the Doetsch most of the time, although I do still use the Boulangeot, especially for a tune that spends a lot of time on the G and D strings. I will hold on to it for at least another couple of years and I may discover that I can get more from it later than now.