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

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