Blog - Page 9 of 9 - Fiddler Dan Violins & Workshop, Brisbane

Sandner Violin review…made in Germany?

Franz Sandner is a relatively well known factory violin maker from Germany producing higher end student and other violins in Germany, carried now to third generation. Sander German Violins pop up in shops and online with a bit of a price premium, here is my review and thoughts about them.

Digging a bit deeper, some time back though a joint Sandner violin venture was established with Taiwan, to form the Sandner Dynasty Company which builds and manufactures violins in China. China makes good violins these days, the cost of labour is lower than in western Europe so it makes good sense. The challenge comes around the marketing and does it pass the ‘pub test’. Is it really still a German violin? The labels implies that it is, and at the price point it would seem to be a bargain. Germany is written everywhere from case, to label inside the violin..and bridge!!

Even on the Aubert bridge on this one it seems not quite right as Aubert a French bridge company! . Personally I find it a bit deceptive and at the very least quite misleading.

sandner violin back on a sandner dynasty violin

None the less by way of first hand review, my son had a Sandner Dynasty violin for a while, it was a good violin for him at the stage he was at. It was a quality build, with a good bow and an upper end student case too…so I was happy with it, but if I had thought it to be a German violin I think I would have been disappointed. I still see Sandner Violins advertised as a German violins in music shops too..its a bit disappointing I recon, sure the store owner can claim ignorance as it says Germany on the label…but I recon they’d know! Probably it cheapens their actual German made Sandner violins reputation too.

Where is my violin made?

Once upon a time all violins were made in Europe and ideally Italy, then France, then Germany then the UK etc… These days they are made all over the world, but a European instrument still commands a higher price.

Its partly because of the way they are built (by hand), varnished (multiple layers of hand applied lacquer) but also because of the reputation of being the birth place of these instruments. The timber was sourced from slow growing European forest and much prized for their tonal qualities

Now a days most instruments are made in China and while the early instruments of the 1970’s were quite ordinary, now a days there are some fabulous violin makers in China who can command a premium on their work too.

One area where China really excels is in the substrantially lower cost of labour, and given violins are a labour intensive process they can really compete on cost.

two violins europe or chances which is which

So today savvy European western violin makers have cottoned on to this and can out source parts of the violin making, or even all of it, to China and still call their instrument European (see Sander Violin review…made in Germany?). They can do this by shopping their European timbers to China, having them roughed out, (or even finished under supervision of a European maker), before being hand finished by in Europe and then lacquered. Does it matter?…I guess that is in the eye of the buyer. Most reputable violin makers will tell you where the wood is from and where and who did the work on the instruments. You often see a sliding scale in the cost of the violin to reflect this.

So most beginner instruments today are made in China, the better ones will be finished with a traditional lacquer, but the cheap ones will use a spray on “Nitro” finish. It quicker and keeps the cost down. Check out mine here, I have selected these for their sound. It also a more robust finish for beginner instruments too.

Antique cases

Recently we have had lots of fun restoring antique cases. Just like violins they are snapshots in time, often put together with paper lining, spare bits of spruce, liberal hide glue, all hidden under a layer of felt.

One the lining is out we pretty much start from scratch with some interior frame to give it strength, then padding and suspension elements. There’s a lot of thinking because the tolerance are quite fine.

The exterior is either an oil finish for the natural timber cases or black enamel. we recon they are not too shabby, but at around 20hrs of work quite fiddly.