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What's the deal with Stradivarius violins? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Rolling. Yeah,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Jerry said right before she press record, I'm sleepy three one.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Oh really, Yeah, I didn't hear you. Didn't you notice that? Did?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I was just memorizing. I was practicing what I was
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: gonna say. Oh, that's right, I'll go ahead. I just did.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Oh I was successful. You're practicing. Help. Hey, welcome to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the podcast. Uh should we talk fiddles? Uh? Yeah, chuck
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: fiddle d D. Let's do I bought one a few
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: years ago. By the way, I took one lesson. Uh huh,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and you became an expert. No, that's just me, man,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: That's how things go with me. I have a lot
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of things that I've been like, I'm gonna do this,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: go allow of balls in the air. Yeah. Specifically musically,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I bought a steel guitar and I didn't learn to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: play that. I bought a keyboard and was gonna learn
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to play piano. Didn't do that. The violin. I'm keeping
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a violin though. So you're stimulating the economy, Yeah, pretty much,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and I usually keep just like sell that and use
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that money to buy the next thing. I don't play,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: but I don't know, like I know how to play guitar.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm kind of realizing at my age, like maybe
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that's all it's gonna be. You're a guitar man, like
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Bread said. Yeah, but used I used to want to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: be like man by the time I die. I want
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to be able to play all the stringed instruments. That
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: was my goal, and I've learned one. I mean that's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: more than some people. I don't. I don't know how
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to play any stringed instruments. So but you don't care
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to it sounds like no. I mean, well, so you
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: consider the piano stringed instrument. Uh it's got strings so yeah,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: as a percussion or is it stringers? It both? Well,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a little hammer hits the strings percussion interesting, um, whereas
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: a harpsichord is plucked. Yeah, talking piano, I wish I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: could play the piano. I'd like to learn that one day.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: My brother took lessons as a kid and my sister,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: but I didn't. Oh yeah, Scott can still play a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: little bit today of course. Hey Scott super bro. Uh
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: so the fiddle. A little history here before we get
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: into the man um the fiddle or violin. There's no difference,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: by the way, is that right? Yep? One pronounced one
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: way and the others pronounced the other way. Yeah, it's
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a little and I thought there was a difference when
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I bought mine. I was like, well, what's the difference,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And it's just and how you play it. They're like
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: kill billies play fiddles. Yeah, other people play violin exactly.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So the fiddle at first was not a well regarded instrument.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: It was thought of as a sort of a cheap
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: tavern instrument, you know, like you'd get drunk and hop
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: up on the table at the tavern and beat out
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a little Irish jig. Uh yeah, And it didn't have
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a good reputation. Win well, I mean this is uh
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the sixteenth century, Okay. So then initially yeah, okay, yeah,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm okay hang uh. And then even
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: in parts of Italy, at first the church ordered the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: destruction of violins. They were so like look down upon.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And then a lady named Catherine de Medici got on
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: board and she's like, this thing is wonderful. I'm gonna
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: order thirty eight of them for my court from this
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: guy named Nicholas Amati who was the grandson of the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: great violin maker Andrea Amadi. Actually she probably bought them
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: from Andrea if it was and um, yeah, it was
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: fifteen sixty four, and uh, that was it. Things started
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to change and that's literally what kind of led the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: violin down a path of respectability. Yeah. Once you introduced
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: it into court, people tend to follow suit. Yeah. Um yeah.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So the the Amadi's lived in a place called Cremona, Italy, right,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and Cremona because the Amadis lived there, who were basically
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the de factor inventors of the violin, cello and viola
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  Speaker 1: as we recognize them today. Because that's where they were from,
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  Speaker 1: Cremona became the center of violin production, stringed instrument production,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: plain and simple. Yeah, which is pretty neat, like the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the idea that that's where violence came from and that
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: they're that recent in origin, and of course that goes
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: further back than that, like lutes were obviously around long
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: before the violin. But again, if you look at a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: violin today and say, oh, it's a violin, you can
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  Speaker 1: thank the Amadis of cremona for for making that recognizable
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  Speaker 1: to you. Yeah, and here's another cool little fact. The
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: uh the you know, the fancy beautiful shape of a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: violin is not for aesthetics. It is all about the
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  Speaker 1: sound that it makes. The violin doesn't give a damn
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  Speaker 1: whether you think that looks good. Well, it turned out
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to look beautiful. But all those curves allow for equal
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  Speaker 1: resonance of all the notes, which if it was more
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  Speaker 1: basically shaped, certain notes would be sound better than others.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Huh so um. That allowed the entire fingerboard to sound
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: wonderful well. Plus Also, if you look at a violin
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: face on, sure, uh, if you go down the sides
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in the middle, it's cut in. Those are called seabouts.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Those actually have a practical purpose, I'm sure, in addition
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to helping produce sound. But it allows the bow to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: play the strings on either side without hitting the body
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: of the violin. Pretty clever. It's really hard to play.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I can't stress that enough. It's like I thought, this
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: is not so different than the guitar. Like I'm just
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: holding it under my neck and using a bow instead
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  Speaker 1: of fingers. That's got to be a pretty big difference.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: It's a huge difference fingers bow totally different. You're born
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: with one the other. You have to like buy well,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: it's it's a combination of pressure on a string, angle
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of the bow on the string, pressure from your parents,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: placement of the bow on like as far as how
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: far down it is, up and down the violin um speed.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It's like there's like ten different things that go into
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: making a sound on a violin that you have to
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: do successfully all at once. It's really really hard. Like
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I was intimidated and went in the closet. You go,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: maybe my daughter will play one day and it will
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: be waiting for her. So we'll see. But should we
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: go over the parts? I know you mentioned the sea about? Sure,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: sea about is my favorite, so you take it from there. Well,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: if you look at the violind you got the very
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: above those little tuning pegs which are contained in the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: peg box. You've got the scroll, which is that kind
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  Speaker 1: of curvy, lovely fancy piece at the top. Uh. Then
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you have the neck and the fingerboard. The neck goes
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: from basically down to the body of the violin, but
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the fingerboard continues on through it. Uh the upper bout,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the lower about and then that sea about You mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: which is also called the waist. Then you have your
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: two f holes cut on either side, the fancy holes. Yeah,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they look like f's. Uh. Then you have your bridge,
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  Speaker 1: which is the very thin piece of wood that keeps
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the strings you know, off of the violin body itself
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  Speaker 1: and taught. Then you have your tailpiece at the bottom
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: where the strings end, and then the all important chin rest.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And that's a violin. Bam, go make one now I'm leaving.
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  Speaker 1: So again, there was the amadis that came up with
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the the violin you just described. That's right. And one
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: of the amadis the grandson of Andrea Amati, who I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: think is credited with inventing the violin basically. Um, but
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: his grandson, Nicola uh, taught a young man by the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: name of Antonio and and only a Strativiry. That name
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: sounds familiar, Yeah, Uh. Antonio Stradivari was born in Cremona.
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  Speaker 1: They're not sure when they think, probably about sixty four.
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  Speaker 1: Life is a bit of a mystery, his young life
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: at least, right, not a lot of great records on it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Do you know what? This just a jog my memory.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: We never explained why Alexander Hamilton would shave two years
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: off of his age, even though we specifically said we
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: were going to. Well that's awesome. Should we follow up now?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Probably not. I think people would get mad. Yeah, if
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: you want to know, right in and we'll tell you,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: or maybe we'll post it on such means. I think
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that's better. Yeah, but who cares. We're talking Stradivaria now. Yeah,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: we've moved on all right. So Stradivari. Uh, there's not
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  Speaker 1: very good records, um about his his youth. I think
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: as you said, um, but he pops up in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six at the very latest. That's right. Violin pops
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: up in sixteen sixty six. I should say. It has
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  Speaker 1: an inscription on it and a label actually uh, And
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  Speaker 1: if you translated to English, it says made by Antonio
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  Speaker 1: Stradivari of cremona pupil of Nicolo Amati in sixteen sixty six.
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  Speaker 1: Well done a year of satan. Uh. And that means
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: he was either a pupil, which it clearly says, or
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a bit of a bit of a stretch of the truth,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: in a bit of a ruse in a career move. Really. Yeah,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: there's some people that say, and that's why I was wondering.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: It says people believe some people believe he was a pupil. Yeah,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't the well it says he was a pupil
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and the inscription. But the other thought is that maybe
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: it was a bit of a career move to say
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  Speaker 1: I was taught by the grade Amati um who's dead
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: now and can't say otherwise. Maybe, but who knows. I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: bet he was probably a pupil. Actually he wasn't dead,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: so that would have been pretty uh gutsy to have
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: done that, because um Amati didn't die for many years,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: many more years after sixteen sixty six. So I think
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  Speaker 1: the common consensus is that he was a pupil of
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the body. He would have said, he's stealing in my business,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So what up with that? Man? This thing is gonna
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: be lousy with that, alright. So sixteen sixty six, you
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: are correct, he builds his very first violin on his own. Uh.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: He continues to build violens on his own in his attic,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: which was apparently the tradition attic violin building? Was it?
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: That's what it said. I guess that was just like
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: where you would put your workshop. Who knows, maybe it
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Have you ever seen the movie The
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Red Violin. Yes, great movie, agreed, like stick with it.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I think I might have seen that on your recommendation
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Uh yeah, really good
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: movie though. Um so he's making violence. He moves into
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: a home in sixteen eighty and um he started to
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: get some recognition as a great builder and maker of violins,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a great craftsman. He did, h and he was still
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: kind of living in the shadow of the Amadi's um
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But when uh Nicola Amadi died in sixteen eighty four,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: by this time everyone said, this guy is Cremona's best
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: maker of violins, which since Cremona was the world capital
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of violin making and they were made elsewhere, but Cremona
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was like the place where the best were made, the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: crem of the Cremona Right, that made him the world's
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: best violin maker. And he hadn't even entered his golden
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: period yet. Yeah, and he was making more than violins.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: He's making cellos and guitars and mandolins and harps uh
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: pretty much anything with strings except harpsichords. Who knows, he
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: might have made a harpsichord that that'd be worth a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: lot probably. So, Uh, all right, should we take a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: break here, Yes, all right, we'll get into more craftsmanship
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: right after this. M alright. So Strativari is following in
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Amadi's amati It's footsteps, but he's also like, you know
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: what I'm gonna, I'm gonna start tweaking this thing, Yeah,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and craft my own brand of violin. Uh. And he
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: does so. He said, I'm gonna use some new materials,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: maybe some new finishes. I'm gonna I'm gonna make that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: c about a little straighter then you're used to. And
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: then f's a little straighter the f holes Is it straighter?
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Was that the deal? I knew? We altered the f
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: hole some and uh something with the scroll too, Is
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that right? He made it more amazing, and he made
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the scroll larger, the f holes not only straighter, but longer,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: larger scroll, and a and a straighter and stronger seabout
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that was like mechanically that those were the biggest differences, right.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: But he also crucially came up with his own formula
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: for a varnish. Um It's a very easily recognized, deep
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: deep red brown varnish that his violins have. It's very handsome,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: but a lot of people, as will see later, believe
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that it's possibly the varnish that makes strato various violins
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: so great because when he made these changes, not only
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: was he making these changes to the the shape and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: appearance of the violin um, he was also like a
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: master would in layer like the craftsmanship that his violins
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: had or just unparalleled. They're flawless, flawless works of art
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: as musical instruments. So in addition to just being a
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: flawless work of art, they also sounded better than anything
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: anything that could possibly um compare to be compared to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it um. And what's really exceptional about Strata various is
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: it's not just one of those things where like, oh
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the name is actually what what is really driving it?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: A strata various violin that's three years old today is
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: probably better than any violin that's been produced in the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: last three hundred years, including a brand new one. Like
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: they're only now getting to the point where they can
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: they they've discovered techniques where they can start to replicate
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the sound of strativarius. That's how good this guy's violins were.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: That that it's not it's not a joke, it's not hyperbole.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Of how great the strata various violins were, they are
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: still the ones that this guy made by hand are
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: still the best violins in the world. That's really saying
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: something considering how much progress we've made in the last
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: three hundred years on just about everything. And and these
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: are you know, for the the finest uh tuned ear
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: is in the world. Like, clearly there are flawless amazing
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: instruments and violins being produced since then. But for the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: true like aficionado, they can spot the difference. Apparently, Oh yeah,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: like you and I can't know. But people whose job
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it is to um identifying a praise strata various violence
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: say that comparing it to a non strut strata various
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: like a knockoff or something, is like comparing a ferrari
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to a school bus. It's like that. Obvious people like
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: saying things like that, it's a great quote. We're just
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a couple of schumps. What do we know? Um, so
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: it just might be a new gag. So uh. He
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and his first wife had six kids. He was good
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: at having kids. He and his second wife. His wife
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: sadly died in He got remarried and had five more
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: kids with wife Number two. He was great at making
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: violins and making children, yes, crafting children's great at crafting
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: little babies. They called them the mice jo in the bedroom,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I think a couple
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of his sons even went on to follow in his footsteps.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Is that right from his first marriage? Right? They were
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: second line. They were smumps, though they couldn't hold a
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: candle to their father's work. So let's talk about the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: golden period from seventeen hundred to seventeen twenty five. Depending
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: on who you talked to, this was the golden period
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: where these violins. I mean he had really honed his
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: design at this point, and the materials that he used
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and everything kind of all coalesced into making the best
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: violins in the history of the world. It was like
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Lebron's tenure at the Heat. Oh well, we'll see his
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: career is not over yet. Yeah you're calling it now, huh?
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I mean he he he made a case for a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: resurgence this past season. But we'll see if he can
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: repeat it. Okay. He was playing on five hundred cylinders
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: with the heat. It was just perfect because he didn't
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: have to be the team leader. He could be one
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of like the leaders that that team had several leaders
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and he could be one of them. It wasn't like
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the whole team just pushed upward towards Lebron. See A
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: lot of people have the opposite view that that was.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: You know, anyone can get on a team of superstars
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and win championships, but no, not necessarily would be the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: one leader is a bigger accomplishment. I'm very curious to
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: know how, say, like the Golden State Warriors are going
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: to be next season with Durant and Steph Curry and
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Clay Thompson on there. Thompson knows so much, but like
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: stef Curry and Kevin Durant, they're like two of the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: greatest players that have ever lived, ever lived, not just
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: they're playing right now. How are they going to gel
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the idea that Duane Wade and Chris Bosh and Lebron James,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: we're all a well to keep their egos in check
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and come together to work together and lead a team together.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: That I think that's harder than that's just being like
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: forget it, I'll do it myself, you know. Yes, all right,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So strata vari is uh making his mark on the world,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: getting his reputation and he's making a lot of money.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: He wasn't one of these. It's like after he died
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: they later realized how great he was. He was a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: rich man making and selling these violins. Yeah, apparently there's
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a phrase richest strata vari Yeah, like richer than an
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: astronaut is what we would say today. Yeah, he was
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: one of the more famous guys in Italy at the time,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, and rightfully so. His crowning achievement, supposedly
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: is uh in seventeen sixteen when he built the Messiah Uh.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: And this is the only violin that he never sold
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: that he kept in his workshop till the day died.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: It was his head stash violin. And um he this
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: this violin has rarely been played. Apparently. One of the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: sort of things unspoken rules when this thing has been
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: sold and passed down is that don't even play it.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: This one should remain pristine. Yeah. It's basically as close
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to a mint conditioned strata various as you can find
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: in the world. Oh, it's not close, it's meant yeah,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: but I mean a couple of people have played it.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It's it's not been unplayed. Okay, Yeah, a couple of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: bad eggs in there, a couple of super lucky violin
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: plays that screw your unwritten rules. This is before the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Ashmolean got their hands on it. Okay, um, so post seventy,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: post Golden period, he still produced violins and things, but uh,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: apparently his eyesight was going, his hands were not as steady,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and they weren't quite what they were during the Golden period.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they were still wonderful violence. Oh yeah, he's
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: still turning out the good stuff, but nothing like that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Golden period. And he worked into his nineties, so he
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was building violence for you know, seventy years. He worked
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: up to his death, as far as I understand, I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: think so, um so yeah, but that Golden period stuff
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that was there was the Messiah from seventeen sixteen, the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Large from seventeen fifteen, the Bets from seventeen o four. Um.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Those are just a few of the ones that he
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: made during this period that are still around today. He
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: made I saw a thousand alysis of hundred stringed instruments
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: during his career, About six hundred and fifty survived today. Um.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: And there they tend to have names, especially the ones
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: from his Golden period. As you just heard. Um, they
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: have names, and they're usually the name of the most
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: famous UH player who owned it. Right, Um, they weren't
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: like Skippy and old Roy right barnabas violin So Um,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: there's a there's a superstition among violinists that the more
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: you play a violin, the more a particular person plays violin,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the more that violin takes on the character of that player. Right,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: so much so that a violinist or even a cellist
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: or of the oldest can come along afterward and play
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that person's violin and it will it will sound much
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: more like the person who's violin it is than the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: person playing it. And there's there's a further superstition that
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the more you play of violind the better it sounds. Well,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that's not a superstition, that's fact in any instrument. So
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: there is a study, um from I think that I
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: came across that that found that the more violin would
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: is vibrated, the more the dampening coefficient is lowered. The
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: lower the dampening coefficient. The longer a note resonates, the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: longer a note resonates, the richer the sound. And so
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: just playing it right because you're you're vibrating the wood
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: when you're playing a violin. The more you do that,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the more frequently you do that, the better the violin
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: is actually gonna sound so astoundingly. The more you play
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a violin, the better it sounds. Well, that's true for
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: any instrument. Yeah, it's called breaking it in. It's like
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: a pair of jeans that you can identify with that. Sure,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I love jean and you know a pair of jeans
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: five years in or better than there when you take
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: them off the shelf. Yeah, it's the same thing. It's
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: breaking it in, especially strings with anything with a fingerboard.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: That fingerboard just you know, wears in. Those frets wear
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: down little, and it does get a little bit tuned,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I think to your style. Yeah for sure. Yeah, very interesting. Um,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I'd like to do more on musical instruments here and there. Okay,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I'm putting it out there, all right, all right, Well
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: let's take another quick break and we will get into
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: all the controversies surrounding just why these things sounds so
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: good and all those theories. Pretty interesting stuff. So, Chuck,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I gotta say you did a good job putting this
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: one together. Mhm, Okay, I'm I'm interested in it. You know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: we I had that stuff from the B Side podcast
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: for like two months back in the day. People still
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: call for it and we uh covered this very briefly. Yeah,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and not we didn't do right by it. So that's
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, that's a good topic. Nice,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, dust that one off. Um. So there have
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: been many many theories over the years, like if the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: strata is so revered and legendary that people experts, scientists
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: are bound to want to crack that nut. Yeah, like
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: why yeah, like what's the deal? And it's not. Again,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this is it's objectively better than other violence. The ones
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that strat Stratavari made correct some of the theories. The
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: old theories back then was that he would soak the
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: wood in salt water, not true. That the wood was
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: coated with volcanic ash not true. Dragon's blood was used
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in the varnish. That may have been true. Uh, George R.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Martin came up with that one. Probably so, and then
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I'll you know, we'll get into the more modern theories.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: There's really well, there's a couple of leading theories. One
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: is the wood Yeah, this ice age would which we'll
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: talk about and the others the varnish. Okay, well there,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Strata Varia was working during what's known as Europe's Little
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Ice Age, which is a period of unusually, very unusually
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: colder temperatures. Um, and I think they're still trying to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: figure out what the heck happened, And as a matter
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: of fact, we need to do like an irregular Ice
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Age podcast and we'll talk about it then. But the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: upshot of it was that because of the colder temperatures,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the spruce that was used by strativerari Um in the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: manufacture of these violins grew slower but more evenly steadier,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: so that the wood that was harvested from these spruce
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: trees was much more um uniformly grained. Right, So just
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: basically really high end wood is was produced by this
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: little ice age. The problem with that being the reason
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: that Stratovarias violins were so great is that that wood
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: was also available the violin makers elsewhere in Europe, and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: their violence don't sign anything like a stratovarry. So the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Little Ice Age theory, while still I think um out
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: there has I think that really kind of goes a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: long way to undermining it. Yeah, like they were. People
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: were really excited about that at first, and I think
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: they're like, yes, not proof. It's a cool theory. It
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: is cool, little sage. There's another dude at Texas A
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and M I named Joseph uh Naga Varry Nagy Varry.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: What a unique name, uh. And he said, it's all
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: about this varnish, this cremonese, cremin varnish. Is that not right? Yeah?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I think that's what they say, start your warning right with.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: So he published an article in Scientific Journal Public Library
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of Science one. It's capitalized for some reason, and he says,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you know what's going on here, it's this it's this
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: varnish that he used. Let me analyze it chemically, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: what he found out was it's very unique and that
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: it has these things in there that you would not
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: expect to be being a varnish, like borax and chromium.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: And he said, so, what I think is going on
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is this stuff. He added this stuff to the varnish
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to protect it that would against damage an infestation, But
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: what it really did was actually weakened the wood and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: made it porous, uh, where it should not be. And
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: that created more tone, a more booming, rich, powerful tone,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and a lot of pushback his well, his theories not
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: entirely out of left field, Like it's it's pretty much
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: accepted that if you put the wrong kind of varnish
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: on a violin, it's going to ruin the sound. So
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: his whole thing was, well, why couldn't you stumble upon
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: some varnish that actually enhanced the sound? And that was
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: his idea, that that's that accounted for strata varies violin
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: sounding like that. Um, yeah, I think he did get
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of pushback. There seems to be even if
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: he's right, there seems to be a desire among the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: people who collect and play strata various vi lens is
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: that it will never understand what makes it special. We
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: don't really want to know what will make it special. Um.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: There's a guy who was widely quoted, Um, he's a
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: violinist from America's names, James EANs Ends EANs Man. Uh, Well, James.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: His whole his whole view is that he's played a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: number of strativarious violins and other stringed instruments, and he
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: said that there's probably a thousand things that make them
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: special and we can never possibly know what all those
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: thousand things are and there's never just gonna be just
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: this one thing. That is the key to what made
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Strata various violence so great. Yeah, I think, Um, I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: watched the BBC documentary that was really pretty great and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: um they interviewed another violin maker and he said, you know,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: it was the right place, right time. Thing like this
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: guy came along. Maybe they had this good wood that
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: was special, maybe had this varnish that was special. Um. Yeah,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: but they were in the hands of somebody special too. Well.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: That was his point was was that other people were
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: using some of these same things and they turned out
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: very different. He said he was so good at what
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: he did, Like that's the secret. He was just better
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: at doing this than other people. Right, Like how Chris
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Bosh and Dwayne Wade brought the best out of Lebron James. Well,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: where I think this Texas A and M Professor um
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: aired was that he was so bold as to even
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: posit the idea that it may have been an accident,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and that like I would say, bold is an appropriate term. Yeah,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Like they turned out this good on accident. He didn't
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: know this varnish was going to do that, or the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: wood may have been even pre treated with these chemicals,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and he kind of looked into what it ended up being,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and not that he wasn't talented, but like that's why
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: they are what they are. And people were like, who blasphemy, Yeah,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: out heretic. So how much of these things cost a lot?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: The end I saw, I mean, the numbers are all
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: over the place, Like one thing will say that the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the record was three point five four four million dollars,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and then later on the record was broken with three
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: point six million dollars with the monitor Strata Various, owned
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: famously by Milwaukee brewer Paul Mollitor. That's where that one
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: got its name. Well, yeah, I agree, And then this
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: says in June two thousand fourteen, the creates Are had
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a pre sale estimate of seven and a half million
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to ten million, but it failed to reach the reserve price. Right,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: But then later on another one sold in two thousand
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: eleven for sixteen millions. So apparently nobody's really keeping tabs here.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I looked down the internet. I couldn't find anything approaching
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a comprehensive list of how much these things have gone for.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: But the fact is millions of dollars, tens of millions
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: in some cases from what I understand, and there are collectors,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: very very wealthy collectors who are driving the price of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: strata various viol It's another streams through the roof where
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: if you were smart enough to buy one for a
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: few hundred thousand dollars thirty years ago, it's worth easily
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: ten twenty times that now. Yeah, and it's kind of
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a shame that these aren't in the hands of the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: great players of the world. You know, Well, they're in
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: the hands of the great players of the world who
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: come from very wealthy families. Yeah, or who like you said,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: bought one twenty or thirty years ago, right, and that's there,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: you know, their go to But yeah, it's just it's
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: just another fat piggy thing to to buy and own
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: and possess. The one I have is the most expensive one, um. Fortunately,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the one that's so it's so valuable that it's frequently
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: cited as priceless is the Messiah and that is owned
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: by the Ashmolean at Oxford University, so that one's not
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: up for grabs, which is cool because all the other
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: ones are just operating under that level. Yeah, And the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: lady in the BBC documentary is of violin. It's since
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you got to hold the Messiah with gloves, and it's
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: called that because there's a Nativity seen in laid on
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the back. I believe. Oh, I don't think it's the back.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's in the little tail piece. Um. But
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: this thing is gorgeous and she was allowed to hold
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: it with gloves is like white cotton gloves. And the
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: whole time, even though I knew that wouldn't happen, I
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: was like, don't drop it, you know, those slippy little
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: cotton gloves, And it just made me nervous watching it.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Did you ever see that video of things that were
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: very expensive things that were accidentally broken that I made
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: years back? I remember that. It's just like it was
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: tough to tough to make to uh So over the years,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: there's been many, many, many many fakes. Uh As as
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: soon as he died, they started pumping out um forgeries
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: and not even forgeries, like just mass produced violins that
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: they would throw a label on that at the time,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century, eighteenth and nineteenth century, the people
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: buying the violins knew that they were like knockoff manufactured fakes,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: largely in Germany, right, right, But they weren't like, um, yeah,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: they weren't. They weren't being duped. It was like this
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: is this is in the style of Strativarius or whatever. Yeah,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: largely in Germany, in Czechoslovakia. And the thing is, though,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: is over time these what are now pretty old violins
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: because they were again made in the eighteenth and nineteenth century,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: they had labels on them that would say like Strativarius
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: crimonisis facto and then say like sixteen seventy nine or
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: something like that. Right, So, if you find one of
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: these violins and your attic and it looks pretty old,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it literally says an Italian this violin was made by
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Strativarius in sixteen seventy nine, you could be forgiven to
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: think that you have just found a Strativarius violin and
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: all of your money problems are over. You can go
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: buy more meth than you'll ever be able to do
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: in your entire life. It might say made in Germany too, though,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: that's a big giveaway, it is. And apparently, if you're
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: an appraiser of this kind of thing, you are so
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: sick of people calling you that you can't even hide
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: it when you're interviewed in an article. Yeah. The one
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: guy even said that. Um, he's like, people get angry
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: when you tell them it's not he said, because they
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: think they got a lottery ticket and you have to
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: break it to him. And he said they get mad
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: on these phone calls and they're like, well, do you
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: have tony bucks from men? That's pretty funny. Uh, do
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: you got anything else? Yeah. If you find a violin
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: and you look it over and it says strativarius, and
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: you look even further and it doesn't say Maide in Germany.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't say that, I know, but it's still
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: probably a fake. Well you can. Um, there's a Smithsonian
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: article about it that has basically step by step what
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: you can do and who you can submit photos to
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: to get it basically pre appraise, well not appraise, but
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: just looked at. And they can usually tough from the
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: photos like, no, that's a fake. E step one. Uh,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: leave it out in the sun and let it let
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it get rained on a couple of times if ants
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: are attracted to it exactly. Um. Yeah. But one of
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the appraisers makes the point like they're about six and
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: fifty in the world and they're all basically accounted for.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: We know where they are. Yeah, and even when we
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: don't know where they are, we know we would know
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the ones that we don't know where they are when
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: they surface. The stolen one. Yeah, there was one that
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: was famously stolen um thirty something years ago from a
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: concert violinist and it was a strato various and uh
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: it was in the attic of a Milwaukee thieves house
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and I guess he died and his girlfriend took it
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: to an appraiser who's like, uh, this is stolen. I
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: know who's this is. So it's a very small community.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: So the idea that somebody's just gonna walk up with
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: like a real strata varius that had previously been unknown
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: is is most likely not gonna happen. Yeah. The one
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of the other appraisers said, it's like finding a new rembrand.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: He said, we know what he painted, we know where
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: they are. Um, now they've got computers painting rembrands. Oh yeah,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I remember that. I think a guy left his strata
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: in the cab a few years ago too, was it,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Joshua Bell? It sounds like something that I would do. Way,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I can't remember. I believe that happened, though, remember you
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: get it back. I think so only in New York, right, jeez?
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine no, because again like these are concert
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: violinists who have almost been entrusted by humanity with these
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: things like here, this is a very expensive violin. Yes,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: but we are giving this to you because we think
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: you will enrich this and with your playing, um and
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: maybe someday it'll be called your last name Strata various.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Play it well, don't leave it in the back of
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: a cab. And then that guy had to get on
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: craig'list and by hundred dollar fiddle right yep to play
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: first chair at the Philharmonic. Uh, chuck, Yes, you got
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: anything else? I got nothing else. I don't either. Good
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: job putting this together, man. Thanks. Uh. If you want
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: to know more about Strata Barius, you can search the internet, fork,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: because we don't have an article on how stuff works.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Since I said, uh, Internet, it's time for a listener,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: mel Ah. This is what we call this from my
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: good buddy Becks. Rebecca Bloomfield. She's uh, one of my
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: my pin pals from the stuff you should not want
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: see in prison over the years. She sure is. No,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: she's not. She's a delight though, h and she backed
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: me up on my comments about women in science, so
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I felt good about it, so I wanted to read it.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: She made me feel better. I hope you guys had
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a great time in the UK. By the way, she
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: just missed our show and uh, I think in London
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: by a couple of days, since she was very bummed out.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Does she live there? Was she visiting? I think visiting?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: She now lives some rounds. Uh, So she said, I
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: know you did. I just listened to the delightful history
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: of steam. Anyway, I'm righting to say bloody well done.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Uh is that a curse word? I think like it's like, um,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: very okay, great? Uh, well done Chuck on your comment
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: on what we could have achieved of women had been
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: allowed into the stem fields from the start. I know
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: this sort of comment could be a mine field for
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: a guy, but I can assure you you made your
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: point really well. I'm normally the first to jump on
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: non feminist comments or man splaining. That's what I was
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: afraid of. So she said, I'm usually the first to
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: jump on the man splaining, And when you said it,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I just said, yes, yes, Chuck, very loudly. In my office.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: I even startled the dogs. Raising children is very important,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: but men can do it too. All humans of any
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: gender should have a choice as to what they do
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: with their lives that should not be predetermined because of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: their gender. So good on you, Chuck. Makes me happy
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: to know that the next generation of women are being
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: raised by men like you. And that's from Beck's Bloomfield
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and she is a graphic designer for Little Red Robot
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Design shout out and just a nice lady. Nice. Well,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: thanks a lot, Bex. Can I call her that? Or
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: should I just call her Rebecca? You're you're in the club? Okay, Well,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: thanks a lot, Becks for that email and for um shouting.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: We appreciate that kind of thing. If you want to
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: get in touch with us, you can tweet to us
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: at s Y s K podcast or Josh Underscore um
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Underscore Clark. You can hang out with us at Charles W.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant on Facebook or Super Josh Clark on Facebook
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: or Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know. You
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: can also send us an email to Stuff podcast at
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and is always joined us
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: at at home on the web. Stuff you Should Know
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Is It How stuff Works? Dot com one