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Wednesday, 25 January 2012


Ruth Palmer plays a Stradivarius from 1729, which was sold at auction in 2007 for £1.75 million
Ruth Palmer plays a Stradivarius from 1729, which was sold at auction in 2007 for £1.75 million


Are expensive violins really better than cheaper ones?

Scientists have carried out the first controlled trial to see if old violins worth millions of pounds are really better than newer, cheaper ones.

Violins made by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri in Italy around 300 years ago are the most expensive in the world. The best ones sell for millions of pounds and even star violinists usually have to borrow them from rich owners.

However, until now, there have been no scientific trials carried out to see if these violins are actually superior to modern ones, or whether their high price influences people’s opinions of their performance.

Now, scientists writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have put it to the test. At a violin competition in Indianapolis in America, researchers assembled a group of 21 top violinists. They got them all to play three old violins worth millions and three newer ones. All of the volunteers wore welders’ goggles and played in a darkened room, so that they couldn’t tell which violin they were playing.

When they were asked which violin they preferred, the top choice was one of the new instruments. The most unpopular one was a Stradivarius worth millions!

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4 Comments


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  • jethro007 (Age 12) wrote on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 @ 17:06

    Weird!!!! Violin sellers will be gutted!! Fantastic article!!

  • Seads wrote on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 @ 17:13

    This is the same with expensive guitars I like to buy!

  • superdog7 (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 27 January 2012 @ 12:59

    i did not know that!

  • jobo2002 (Age 10) wrote on Wednesday, 21 March 2012 @ 19:51

    Cool this is really interesting I have 2 violins a full size one and a three quarter size one. The 3 q one sound better and is easy to tune.