The manufacturing date of a violin
I'm buying this violin from a violin player. I inspected the label inside it and I found Suzuki Anno 1981.
Here is a picture of it:
Which means that it is 34+ year old.
I'm a guitarist but I don't know if this is really the manufacturing date or something else.
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My violin was from 1928, and although it has above average sound quality and volume, and its about 9,000 dollars, that's the lower end of violins. They can be, as someone said, more expensive than a house, and my former teacher played a loaner violin once that was valued at 4 million dollars. Violins can get expensive, but 1981 is nothing too desirable, so yes, 1981 is most likely the manufacturing date, and 34 years is very young for a violin.
The label means that the instrument was probably made in 1981. The thing to keep in mind about violin labels is that they are frequently dishonest. In this case, the label claims that the instrument is a mid-quality brand, and not too old. That means there is a high chance it is the original label, and that it is honest because there would be relatively little profit in counterfeiting it. A string specialty shop can usually tell you on the spot if your instrument is worth much.
If your label said Stradivarius, or Guarneri, or had a date over 150 years ago, it would almost certainly be fake. Those labels starting appearing in large numbers in the late 1800s, and have been in production ever since.
My guitar is older than that and nothing special. My violin is from 1820 and not all that special, either, coming from an area known for mass manufacture of violins a few generations later. My principal accordion was built in 1960. Naturally, all of them had needed some servicing while in my possession.
In modern times, it is customary to run through a number of possessions in the course of your life. Really good instruments, in contrast, tend to run through a number of players in the course of their existence. Quite a few instruments by old masters were given names of their own and have a known history of owners and players.
Violins don't "play through". Strings need changing, fingerboards need honing and eventual change, tuning pegs need to get replaced eventually, sometimes the bridge fails, sometime the soundpost needs replacement and, depending on whether soundpost replacement is done timely, the cover of the instrument may need to be worked on.
Depending on the instrument, all of those works may be worth doing or not. But principally violins and their cousins of the string family are built to last indefinitely when cared for properly. All of the parts that might wear are replaceable at moderate cost and effort.
That's different to some woodwinds with mechanics that wear out. While they can be replaced as well, their contribution to the value/cost of the instrument is larger and the material of the instrument is less contributive to its sound than with string instruments. So something like "an old clarinet" or "an old flute" is not coveted for its sound qualities but rather for its antiquity. Violins are different in that regard as the wood is an essential part of its sound. And these days, slowly grown and well-aged wood is harder to come by than centuries ago. Even if you don't subscribe to worship of the old masters.
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