Depending on its sound, someday 300 years from now people will be wanting a Hopfgartner? It'll have to be awfully good. Hope it is.

people play antique violins because they actually do sound better. as wood ages, it develops character and nuance. every year an acoustic instrument is played it sounds better than the last.

this, however, is something else entirely. it has no f-holes, and the designers website lists it as being "semiacoustic," so it probably has a pickup in it. as far as electric violins go, there's no shortage of cutting-edge designs.

While it certainly looks cool, the question, absolutely, is how does it sound?

Of course, the first question I had when I saw the photos was "how do you tune the thing?"

"If you wanted to cross an ocean at great speed you wouldn't go looking for a 17th century ship, so why do we still use 300 year old violins?"

Because the sound it produces is considered the benchmark that all other violins are matched against, thats why. It has nothing to do with age, per se it has to do with the standard of its sound.

Sorry, one of the top reasons a particular instrument of age might become coveted is because of craftsmanship.

Back in the day, people used to take pride in what they constructed and made it good. Moder times have brought us plenty of improvements in quality of life, but the trade off is that we also have plenty of distractions; you don't see people anymore with the same level of dedication that you had "back in the day".

Simply put, almost everything new is production based, automated, and the few things that are handcrafted are done by, (although skilled), relatively inexperienced people when compared to the craftsmen of old.

Add cheap imported materials from countries with low standards, or a material made with considerations on profit margins and market trends, and you're cutting too many corners to accomplish what was done 300 years ago.

This has nothing to do sound, or things being old, or whatever. This is nothing more than a company trying to sell their product. Simple and to the point. It's advertising.

What a cool post thanks for sharing

I have to agree with Bodak, that although this violin uses new construction materials and wraps it up in design billed as "modern"- I don't think it is anything more than a design marketed for fabrication, and to my eye, it certainly is nowhere near as gorgeous as a traditional hand-carved instrument by a master violin maker.

Those Steinberger Guitars that appeared in the Late 80's were supposed to be a revolution too - guess what... we're all still playing guitars that look like traditional guitars.

I'll lastly mention that this isn't the first "new violin design" in 300 years. Makers have been experimenting with violin designs and new construction materials pretty much ever since the first electric violin rolled off the production line - in both electric and acoustic variants.
This is just the latest.
I don't see a resonance chamber or sound holes on this thing either - it makes me wonder what the sound of this new violin is like, which is sort of important in a "it's actually the only important thing" kind of way.

"If you wanted to cross an ocean at great speed you wouldn't go looking for a 17th century ship, so why do we still use 300 year old violins?"

what a moron.

You, sir, are a frakking imbecile. Have you ever played a gorram insrument in your entire life? Or even LISTENED to one?

Climate archaeologists recently found that the trees used for Strads and Amatis had recently been through a long cold stretch, barely growing each year, so the grain was extremely tight. This is believed now to contribute to the rich sound of those instruments.

Funnily enough, to the poster who mentioned the steinberger guitar - I happen to own a steinberger violin, and it's IMO the best-sounding electric violin I've played. They still sell steinberger guitars too, although they're harder to get since the company got acquired and kind of buried by Gibson in the 90's.

But that brings up an interesting point - with Steiny guitars, maybe the guitar itself didn't catch on quite as widely as say a Les Paul, but a lot of the technology used in it - graphite necks, tuner and tremelo design - did manage to find their way into more "standard" guitars. Perhaps that'll be true with violins too. This particular instrument may not catch on beyond a few die-hards/cult following, but some of the innovations in materials and design may find their way into the realm of violins in general. A strad will always be a strad, and nothign is going to replace one, but it might be nice if the quality and sound of a "cheap" violin was improved through technology.

Well even Stratovarius had to start somewhere. I doubt the first time he picked up a piece of wood and transformed it into an instrument that all artists ran out and said I have to have one. As the Baron von Richthofen once said "It is not the crate but the man sitting in it that matters". Also with all these musicians losing and destroying these old expensive violins they are going to need replacements sooner or later.

"feminine curves and sundry corset outlines of the Baroque, Rococo, and Biedermeier ages" means that it came from 300 year old art designs.... which is funny for the post says "If you wanted to cross an ocean at great speed you wouldn't go looking for a 17th century ship, so why do we still use 300 year old violins?"

Funny thing is a 300 year old Stradivarius is worth more than your annual paychecks combined for 10 years, might be a down payment on one.... so yes I would play a 300 year old violin, that is... if I played...

This violin is nice, reminds me of the early nineties remodded button guitar... that now seems to have turned into a game controller for rock band, and guitar hero video games.
i remember having one of these.... they were crap.

I believe the claims are outrageous!

It's a big falacy to compare the history of technology with something that involves beauty or aesthetics.

If you compare ships of then and today, today are much more efficient.

But only a human with the IQ of a squirrel can from that infere that for art it "should be the same".

If people went to pains to convert baroque violins into modern ones, it is certainly because those violins are better, and no luthier in this world can better their sound...

And especially those clever ones that mask their incapacity to understand how a violin works with a flamboyant design. Just to mention something that slipped to the "geniouses" behind this proyect: the silk part of the string is not supposed to be on the vibrating part of it, so maybe you can correct your smartass design...

Anyway, only the stupidest among the stupid can leave any penny for such a fancy-shaped piece of trash.

That Austrian designer should better try something else, e.g. vibrator designer.