Of strads, strats and banjos

Ask anybody what they consider to be the world’s most valuable stringed instrument. Almost without exception, I bet you’ll get the reply “a Stradivarius.”

The Stradivarius violin is about as iconic a name as the Faberge egg, the Rolls Royce car and the Times newspaper. Like the famous eggs, antique musical instruments are not being made any more, which tends to keep sending their value up, all other things being equal.

There are, according to one estimate, about 600 Strad violins in circulation. A public auction in 2011 yielded a record sale price of just

And now comes word that a Strad viola is coming up for auction this spring. Interesting thing is, there are only 10 of them known to be in circulation. The asking price? How about $45 million.

The price is staggering when compared with the 2011 violin sale. It’s also staggering when compared to the viola’s provenance (I learned that word on Antiques Roadshow, and I’ve been dying to use it). The Philips electronics company, which owned Deutsche Grammophon records, bought it to be used by a member of the Amadeus Quartet, who recorded for the label; and paid $81,000 for it. The ownership passed to the Quartet member “in a process we don’t fully understand,” according to a Philips spokesperson. For $45 million, I guess you can never understand the answer to the basic question ‘how could we have been so stupid as to let the ownership slip out of our hands.’

But is a one-out-of-only-10 Strad viola worth $45 million?

On the one hand, if the viola is 60-times rarer than the violin, and the violin has a market price of $16 million, you could argue, I suppose, that the asking price should be $960 million; so that $45 million is, relatively speaking, a bargain.

On the other hand, it’s a little more complex.

The Associated Press reported the other day about a ‘Coke versus Pepsi’ style blind taste test comparing antique and new violins. Six old violins, of which five were Strads, and six new violins, were played by 10 world-class violin soloists. The soloists donned dark glasses and played in darkened rooms, so they were unable to tell which instruments they were playing. (The soloists were not told which violin was which, even after the test, so as to ensure the proceedings weren’t tainted by commercial considerations).

And, surprise surprise, the newer instruments were the Pepsi and the mostly-Strads were the Coke. Violins costing about 100 times less than Strads (you almost feel you should call them ‘fiddles,’ at that price) were mistaken for the antique instruments more often than not; and the preferred instrument choice of the soloists was, by far, a new violin rather than an antique.

Now surely, that has some impact on the value of a Strad. Maybe, based on this test result, a Strad has been overvalued by a factor of 100; so our Strad viola should be selling not for $960 million or $45 millon but for $9.6 million. Strad owners salivating over the potential market value of their stringed goldmines must be quaking in their boots. Relatively speaking.

But if the price of the Strad viola does drop to a more reasonable $9.6 milllon or so, just think of all those potential buyers who might emerge from the woodwork. I can think of at least a dozen friends who would have hankering to say they owned a Strad viola for a brief while and got to play Turkey in the Straw on it. If they got together, it would cost them less than a million dollars apiece—and they could always resell it when they were done with it.

Of course, the other option, if you are interested in vintage instruments, is to stay away from the highdemand areas completely. For instance, you can pick up a first model 1954 Fender Stratocaster electric guitar (known as a ‘Strat’, which is only one letter removed from the famous violin’s spelling; just slur your words and no one will hear the difference) for a mere $250,000. Not quite as ancient as a Strad perhaps, but ancient by rock music standards.

And if you’re really searching for a vintage alternative, the 12th Fret specialty instrument store in Toronto is currrently offering an 1899 Lyon – Healy Mystic Banjo, in fully playable condition, and featuring a 30-hook pot, a mahogany neck with carved heel and ebony fingerboard, and lots of mother-ofpearl inlay. The price? Under $1,500.

Why so low? Well, the kicker is that statement “in fully playable condition.” If you want to know what the word ‘lonely’ feels like, try learning to play the banjo, or, worse still, mastering it. Mind you, it might sell for more if it were not playable; so the best of both worlds would be to snap it up now and undertake never to play it. Just think of the pleasure you would give others with that undertaking— and the pleasure you could give yourself with those extra dollars that you didn’t spend on the Strad viola or the Strat guitar.

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca