You want to know what crazy is? Crazy is when you have never seen or heard a violin, and you drop $5500 on it. Sight unseen, music unheard, I bought this violin. Crazy huh? I agree. But hold on, let me tell you why. I am currently living in Reno, NV, and it gets below freezing here. And it is also very dry; so I wanted a violin that was impervious to the elements. I wanted a carbon fiber violin.
Looks: I don't mind the look of it, I think the scroll could be prettier, and my wife doesn't think it's as pretty as a traditional one, but over all, I think it looks just fine. The carbon fiber is pretty cool. Looks is a very personal think. One of the things that makes it strange at first sight is the lack of cornices.. You get a really smooth body, and no cornices. But we shall talk about the cornices later.
Feel: The violin is LIGHT. Ridiculously light, so light in fact, when it came, I thought the box was empty! That's how light it is!! Light is good in an instrument made for resonance. The pegs are incredible, and I really like the geared pegs! Every violin should use these. Easy to tune. And you won't need to tune that much; the violin never really "warms up", it is good right out of the gate and stays that way. The strings do de-tune once they warm up, but with the pegs and the micro-tuner, it's all very easy to tune. There is a lip built on the back towards the tailpiece of the violin so my Kun rest sits perfectly tight on it. Had they just smoothed it out all the way, you wouldn't be able to use a chin rest, and so I guess they did think of everything. Overall, the violin is light, and lively. The biggest difference in feel though, I believe is the neck. The neck is very smooth, and slightly cold to the touch. The smoothness though makes it easy to over-jump your positions when playing until you get use to it. But again, not good or bad, just different from a traditional violin.
Sound: When it's all said and done, a violin is made for listening.. and here, the Luis and Clark delivers in spades. The sound is bold, and strong, but also very smooth. Compared to my old violin, well, I can't! I had an old machine milled, hand finished German violin, which was heavy and pinchy with a slight nasal sound. The L&C however, has none of these problems. G string was bold, and E string did not whine. I did feel that D string did not give quite the boldness that I was expecting; but everything was smooth. What I love about technology is what it allows you to fix from the old world, while leaving what was good alone. Because the body of the violin is made from a single solid sheet of carbon fiber, and because carbon fiber is so strong, you do not need cornices, and I am glad that Luis and Clark did not include them. The cornices were there to add strength to the instrument at the cost of a dampened sound. But because the violin is carbon fiber, there is no need.
I have tried a few violins in the $20K ~ $25K range, and think this violin is on par, if not better than all those. Couple it with the fact that it's weather resistant and can be cleaned with just a little bit of windex, and you have yourself a winner. I have been waiting over 3 years to buy it, and now that I have, I am happy with my decision.
