Lightweight violins and violas

February 8, 2026, 4:01 PM · I have played one at Curtin’s shop. I am not 100% what the trade offs are vs his regular (excellent) violins for regular use, but they are very much worth a look. FWIW, he doesn’t antique those, which makes them much more attractive, IMO.

February 8, 2026, 4:39 PM · Curtin has been working on lighweighting violins for many years. I played one of his lighweights many years ago, and thought it was pretty bad... but I think it might have been a spruce/balsa laminated top. I have no idea what he's doing now with the soundboards or other internals.

The obvious lightweighting areas are the scroll and chinrest. Those are likely where weight can be removed with the least deviation from a normal violin sound-wise, but even those areas DO have some sound/feel effects.

I have only had one client who specifically needed a lighter violin; most players don't have much problem. Violas are bigger and heavier, where weight reduction would be more desirable, and where deviations from "normal" sound (if there is such a thing for violas) would be less objectionable.

February 8, 2026, 4:59 PM · @Don - your comments about violas are interesting to me as a violist. Lots of violists injure themselves and have to give it up because, when they started, they wanted the biggest d*mn viola they could find for the sound. I have stuck to a 15.5 because I am relatively small, and trying out larger instruments, e.g., 16, caused me discomfort in my shoulders. My question is actually a rather simple one. The weight difference between the 15.5 and 16 must be minimal, but the size difference is significant. So, would a lighter, larger instrument avoid these problems, or is the size difference really the crucial variable, or is it some combination?

February 8, 2026, 5:09 PM · It seems to me that some weight reduction can be achieved with a wood lighter than ebony, covered with a thin laminated layer of ebony, or rosewood.
Maybe eliminating fine tuners makes a bit of difference, I don’t know.
And yes, the application makes more sense for a violist.

February 8, 2026, 5:35 PM · Lightweight violins seem to be a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. My violin case weighs far more than my violin and once it's on my shoulder (the violin I mean) I scarcely know it's there.

February 8, 2026, 6:55 PM · I agree with Steve that the whole premise seems flawed.

Nickie wrote, "It seems to me that some weight reduction can be achieved with a wood lighter than ebony, covered with a thin laminated layer of ebony, or rosewood." Also a less dense wood can be painted or stained, and then there are artificial materials that have been used for fingerboards and the like, owing to the endangered nature of ebony.

Edited: February 8, 2026, 7:24 PM · Greetings,
I concur that violin and viola are separate issues. There is no particular reason to make the violin lighter than it currently is. If it feels heavy then one of the following two areas is likely the problem. 1). The player is not utilizing the body correctly in allowing the instrument to float freely with minimal effort. (The sweet spot). 2). The player has distinct muscular weaknesses that need to be addressed.
The second can usually be resolved through some form of strength training. I often recommend isometrics. Since these kind of exercises have the potential to cause 100% muscle fibre to fire but also have a close to 0% risk of injury they are ideal for making the whole process of violin playing considerably easier.
I have been realizing more and more over my last few years of teaching that adult beginners could make vastly more progress than they do simply by tackling mobility issues in the shoulders and doing basic resistance exercises. I have been doing almost no practice over the last few months as I am working on joint mobility (especially in the hips) and walking a lot. I have been very surprised to find how much my playing has improved simply because as problem areas are resolved and long unused muscles are activated (requiring a good deal of rewiring in the brain) . The more your body is kept mobile and strong across the board the easier the mind to muscle connections becomes.
Cheers,
Buri

February 8, 2026, 7:52 PM · Tom - The body length difference between 16 and 15.5 is only 3.2%, but the width is larger, and the thicknesses need to be increased, so the final weight difference would be roughly 10% (neglecting chinrest). Probably of more importance is that the weight is farther out, and the hand position is even farther out than that, and your arm weighs far more than the viola. I weighed my arm: ~7 pounds. A viola weighs a bit over 1 pound. So it looks like extending your arm is a huge deal. I don't know about needing to clamp the instrument rigidly with your chin; I don't play viola.

I'm taking a years-long break from making, but my latest violas have been made for consideration of the player... 15.75", low-density wood for the plates, blocks and scroll (grafted), higher density wood for the neck and peg bushings.

February 8, 2026, 9:01 PM · The Curtin Ultralight seems not to address an ergonomic problem but a sonic one. The fact is that light instruments are louder and respond faster. So... Let's take that idea to its extreme.
I don't know if they sound good, I've never played one. But they seem to get a lot of positive attention from performers.

For violists, and 5 stringers like myself, the weight of the instrument does become an issue of ergonomics. The key factor is the added length. As such I have begun to incorporate hollow carbon fiber tubes in the necks of my instruments, to good effect. I am also generous with the amount of material I remove from the bottom of the fingerboard, within reason. Perhaps in the future I will transition to baroque-style laminated fingerboards.

February 8, 2026, 9:38 PM · I do think the weight of electric violins is a problem though….

February 8, 2026, 10:14 PM · @Don, @Cotton - thanks so much for the detailed explanation of the weight vs. size issue. If I understand correctly, it sounds as if the getting a viola which is "too" big for the player is really an interesting combination of the two issues because the size increment adds some weight which in turn makes the added size more potentially injurious to the violist as an ergonomic matter.
I suppose making the viola more lightweight decreases the overall problem but does not eliminate it because there are still ergonomic issues with the size. If I understand correctly, the size problem is partly weight and partly additional stresses on the shoulders and other parts of the upper body involved in playing. In other words, a viola might be too big even if light. I hope I have understood this.

February 9, 2026, 12:22 AM · I haven't played one but the idea of "micro-mutes" and trying to make a violin lighter seems gimmicky to me. Curtin claims to have made violins for some of very well-known players including Yehudi Menuhin, but I wouldn't personally purchase something like this.

February 9, 2026, 2:20 AM · I don't think the violin is a heavy instrument, although the posture(s) needed for playing can make it seem so. After concerts my partner sometimes offers to carry the violin, and I have to remind him that it is simply a high-tension box of air. An issue that needs to be addressed though, is the greater weight of almost all beginners' violins and bows.

February 9, 2026, 7:13 AM · I think Menuhin had one of Curtin's regular violins?

Edited: February 10, 2026, 8:18 AM · As I understand it, the purpose of the experiments in light weight construction was to determine how far a maker could go in removing weight before the instrument would stop sounding like a violin. Through some trial and error, Curtin arrived at a design that fit that bill to him. I think because he was pleased with the result he made the design more widely available to customers who were intrigued by the idea of a lighter violin and the concept of one built for the purpose of scientific research.

Light weight is not the standard by which performance is judged, with violins and in many other fields. Weight reduction can be beneficial if there is an excess of weight, but it can also lead to issues. The violin is a complicated system, and many things have to be in balance for the system to perform harmoniously. If you isolate weight as a single variable, other aspects will suffer as a result of the single focus. Yes, you can reduce weight by using an early baroque-style fingerboard with a softwood core and ebony veneer, but that may lead to changes in tone that you don’t like. I wouldn’t say that thinner always equates to louder, as one of the most powerful violins in history is Il Cannone, which is known for being rather thick. It’s notorious for being tricky to play, but it’s also revered for its massive power once a player figures out how to drive it.

Many excellent old Italian violins are remarkably light, but that’s not necessarily because low weight was the aim of the makers. We don’t know what they weighed originally and it’s likely that certain properties of the wood itself were the impetus behind thicknessing choices.

The bicycle industry went through a light-weight phase for a while with the explosion in popularity of carbon fiber. There was an assumption that lighter was faster, and manufacturers went to great lengths to compete and make the lightest production frame. Lower frame weight was beneficial under certain conditions, but as aerodynamics started to be more carefully considered, it was quickly realized that weight reduction was not the ideal. While the use of carbon fiber has made it possible to produce bikes that are lighter than many steel, aluminum, or titanium frames overall, the weights of superbikes with intense aerodynamic design would be considered beefy by the standards of bike manufacturers 15 years ago, and they’re measurably faster.

February 9, 2026, 12:32 PM · Don is correct. The viola player's arm weighs much more than the viola. Large violas require a longer arm extension which increases the stress on the players arm and shoulder. The viola size is much more important than its weight.

But reducing the viola's weight is still helpful.

Violin players have less injuries than viola players so I now make my violas the same length (~356mm) as violins. Their total weigh is only about 385g including the chin rest and built in shoulder rest.

About half the viola players don't like their sound while othe half really really don't like their sound.

February 9, 2026, 3:51 PM · I'm going to work on the idea that CR+SR matching is crucial with a viola, so that the jaw can support it without effort.

February 9, 2026, 6:27 PM · I am a viola maker. I do prefer start with wood that is lighter in weight. I also make the scrolls of the violin type, and reduced a bit the size of the scrolls I carve. I also use violin pegs in my violas, and make their necks as thin and narrow as in a violin neck.
There is a trend towards small violas, many of my dealers will refuse 16.5 violas, the 16-inch model being the most popular by far.
With a smaller viola it is easier to get the sound focused, a quick response and clarity.
www.manfioviolas.com

February 9, 2026, 6:35 PM · I like Helen Michetschläger‘s lightweight violas built with poplar and weight-relieved scrolls. Unfortunately, I haven’t played one.

February 9, 2026, 7:24 PM · You know, after reflecting on this, I do recall some student instruments being a little hefty. I think that weight reduction should be considered more in cellos and basses, than in the smaller fiddles. I’ve never played a cello, but I’ve lifted some, and that’s why I don’t play one. Banjos are pretty heavy too. Just removing the back makes a big difference. We have a resonator guitar that weighs so much, neither of us want to play it. You couldn’t give me an electric guitar.
Weight seems a lot more important in many other instruments besides ours. My go to violin and bow weighs less than my ukulele, which is darn small. My student violin, without the bow, weighs just about the same as the uke.

February 9, 2026, 9:55 PM · @Luis - the head of Curtis Institute, who is a violist, once said that the best violas were around 15.5.

February 10, 2026, 2:26 AM · In his ad Curtin doesn't actually say how light "ultralight" is. I guess much of the saving is achieved in the choice of wood for the back; the one illustrated frankly isn't at all pretty to look at. It also looks like you're stuck with the chin rest along with its fixing bolts.

February 10, 2026, 6:42 AM · Tom Holzman, yes, Dias plays a small viola. Most of the violas I make are 16 inches, about 80% of them, even tall players like them.
Also, most violists, as they get older, move to a smaller viola.
Many years ago I sold a small 15.5 viola to a player of the Gewandhaus Leipzig, he was very tall but not young and mentioned playing Wagner's operas, almost 6 hours of playing...

www.manfioviolas.com

February 10, 2026, 8:31 AM · A maker who has one on order for me has said firmly that the sweet spot is about 405mm-- 16 inches. And so it shall be.

But if I'm ever going to use a viola in an orchestra, I shall consider 15.5", or maybe a 5-string job. My ex actually got one even smaller from Ed Maday, who has figured out a lot about making a short body produce a lot of sound. It looks a little weird, but definitely sounds like a viola.

February 10, 2026, 9:17 AM · @Luis - several viola teachers, who have heard my 15.5 (British 19th century, unknown maker but probably French) have said they love its sound.

February 10, 2026, 9:45 AM · Stephen, you made me curious, so I went to his website.
Lots of unusual instruments photographed. I think that the hollow see through peg box is really cool.
http://www.edmaday.com/

February 10, 2026, 11:44 AM · His small violas have nods to Brescian aesthetics, with deep ribs and seriously arched back-- so lots of air volume. She got rid of a wonderful Erdesz viola that was just too big, and found there wasn't much to complain about in this new one.

Edited: February 10, 2026, 7:02 PM · "A maker who has one on order for me has said firmly that the sweet spot is about 405mm-- 16 inches."

Pretty close, but the ACTUAL sweet spot is 400mm. I dare anyone to disprove it ;-) (sarcasm, in case you can't tell)

Unless you play vertical, then tradeoffs are completely different.

February 10, 2026, 2:26 PM · Could be. In the back of my mind is the finding that viola bodies are suboptimal in terms of their string length and required pitches. If they are always going to sound awful, there isn’t much point worrying about it.

Edited: February 10, 2026, 3:39 PM · Tiny by the standards here:
https://www.stamfordstrings.co.uk/helenmitchetschlagersmallviola.html#/

P.S. I love the Curtin bridge!

February 10, 2026, 4:02 PM · The scientific "finding" that violas are "suboptimal" for the desired pitches and therefore sound bad is so stupid and I wish it would go away already.

Edited: February 10, 2026, 7:07 PM · It is only the players who decide what is good and what is not. Science can only (with great difficulty and spotty success) help get what the players want. Experienced makers are usually better than science.

February 14, 2026, 3:06 AM · The first - and only - viola I ever bought was 16.5 inches, and I was surprised to hear from a violin teacher that she was surprised I'd got one so big. I never found I had any difficulty with finding the notes - all I needed to do was remember that it's a bigger instrument than my violin, and alter my finger spacing accordingly. I wasn't surprised that it was heavier either - but it sounded okay to me, and that's what counted. I suspect I would be interested in a lightweight instrument, particularly if I was playing in an orchestra playing the Wagner Ring Cycle, and holding my viola up for that length of time would be tiring.