Why so many?

November 21, 2025, 9:56 AM · Because new violinists are also being made every day. And old violins are destroyed, lost, resigned to attics and wall hangings. Not to mention the overwhelming proportion of production is a never-ending sewage overflow of crap. The number of really high-calibre instruments being made is comparatively small.

Probably the biggest reason: people just like making the darn things. Most small time luthiers never sell most of their work.

Edited: November 21, 2025, 10:31 AM · I think there are numerous answers to your question. Here are some that come to my mind:

1. Shops that rent instruments need new stock routinely because
a) Violins get damaged and have to be declared as losses at a point
b) Customers often want to use a brand new instrument

2. First time buyers of instruments at the lower level often want to be the first player and owner. It used to be that at the step-up level, one could choose between a new commercial instrument or an old German or Czech one, but the prices of the latter have risen enough lately that those violins are essentially out of that level now. Then you’re choosing between a brand new instrument or a heavily repaired old one. Many first time buyers are understandably leery of taking on an instrument that will require extra care and maintenance.

3. There is an enthusiastic market for new instruments. A lot of people are eager to see new violins and compare them. Some of them just want the unique opportunity to commission a violin directly from a maker they admire, some are hoping to be early investors in promising makers.

4. Although players often use one instrument as their main instrument, many players will go through a series of violins throughout their career.

5. Despite the abundance of old violins and increased repair capabilities of luthiers over the centuries, the number of violins made at the golden period of mass production decreases with accidents over time.

6. The demand for old violins is so great that shops simply need inventory to fill their racks sometimes. New violins are readily available and make a shop look more successful if they’re hanging in rows. There are tons of old violins out there, but the ones that shops need for their inventory aren’t always immediately available.

7. It’s often suggested to players that if they have a fine old instrument, they should also have a modern one that they can use for outdoor concerts or for traveling. In fact, some makers are commissioned by players to make copies of their old instruments for this purpose.

8. Making new instruments is a great way to study old ones from a practical perspective. Looking at various aspects of an old violin and trying to replicate them in new making gives makers an insight into the thought processes and working methods of makers who didn’t leave behind treatises or otherwise share their methodology.

9. There are many, many collectors. Some amass collections of fine or priceless instruments, but many collect instruments that aren’t all that expensive. That can apply to old and new violins alike.

10. The old violin dealing trade has diminished a lot since the advent of online selling. There used to be a lot of people who could make a decent living by going on the road in a van or station wagon just buying up collections of old fiddles and selling them to shops by the boxful. That way of doing business has become much more rare, and now there are only a few people left who still do it, and even they say that availability is nowhere near what it used to be. There’s plenty available online, but so much of it is unrealistically priced. That automatically pushes a lot of people toward the cheap new fiddles that they can get at an attractive price and mark up without having to do any work.

11. There are lots of shops that offer violins for sale, but not all of the have the staff needed to work on them. New violins can be bought with factory setups that make it possible for a business to sell instruments without even knowing how to set a soundpost. Old violins require expertise to set up and repair, and that means a shop has to hire a skilled employee or send the work out to a contractor.

Edited: November 21, 2025, 12:06 PM · This is closely related to my earlier thread asking why there’s so little inventory of gently used instruments from the past 50 years or so.

Rich, I appreciate all of your insights here (and across the message board). The attrition due to loss/storage and poor maintenance is still shocking to me.

I recently bought a new Chinese instrument based entirely on its sound quality for the price. My intention was to find an older/restored instrument with “character” and a story, but in the end sound and dynamic response were more important to me. There’s something to the current state of the art based on studied knowledge of the past.

November 21, 2025, 1:21 PM · In addition to everything mentioned above, many school districts that have string programs stock instruments for their students to use. Those instruments tend to have a hard and somewhat shortish life.

November 21, 2025, 2:33 PM · Another thought related to the rental business: a lot of shops want a rental outfit that they can promote to the public. In order for customers to get a consistent product, they rely on a supplier that can give them hundreds of violin outfits that are just about identical. That way teachers can know what to expect with a standard rental from a shop. If you rent old instruments, the offerings will differ. That also puts the shop into the position of having to decide whether to charge different rates based on the quality of each violin. That gets complicated. But if you can just say something like “My standard rental is a VL-100,” it’s easy to quantify and easy to distinguish from other tiers (perhaps an economy-level VL-80). If you have the resources to refurbish damaged instruments, those with more obvious signs of damage can be demoted to the lower price categories until they’re beaten up enough to be discarded. Unique or higher level instruments can be put in higher categories and individually selected for serious players or teachers the shop wants to impress.

A close friend of mine had a small shop and teaching studio when I was growing up. As an active player, he came across a lot of old instruments and occasionally bought them to refurbish. Whenever he had one ready, he’d offer it to any students that needed a better violin either for use in lessons or through a very informal rent-to-own program. It wasn’t really a big money maker (that wasn’t his intention) but it worked well for him because rentals weren’t the focus of his business and he wasn’t trying to rent to anyone other than a handful of players in his own studio. If he had tried to rent old instruments on a larger scale, I don’t think it would have worked; it would have taken too much time away from teaching to refurbish more instruments, and he would never have been able to keep up if there was demand.