A Brief History of the Violin Making Industry for the
Past 30 Years
Past 30 Years
by Alexander Ross
Until 1980 or so, the
best commercially made violin family instruments were made in Germany,
Czekoslovakia, and France. The Germans especially made quality control a
primary concern, and made the most consistent and well made instruments
for students through most of the 20th Century.
The Chinese violin
making industry became active following the Cultural Revolution during
the 1960's in China. China had a resource of labor and a cultural
tradition of fine handwork that matched the needs of the growing
worldwide violin market. By the 1990's, Chinese shops began producing
violins that competed on a construction, workmanship, design and
materials plane with the best European workshops at a fraction of the
cost. Most of the cost in a violin, viola, cello or bass is labor. A
violin represents about 200 hours of labor, and manufacturers found it
cheaper to hire chinese labor than to automate, which would produce less
fine instruments because of the individual nature of each piece of
wood.
By 2000, most of the
workshops that produced violins in such places as Marneukirchen,
Mittenwald, and Mirecourt had shut down, as European labor was more than
10 times as expensive as the Chinese equivalent. Prices on many
instruments have actually dropped over the last twenty years!
Today we are in new
period of change, and where we will see instrument prices go is a matter
of conjecture. What we do see is that the exchange rate of the Chinese
currency is making it less advantageous for us to buy Chinese labor
intensive products. The supply of that labor is diminishing in China due
to the influx of more of manufacturing such as high tech electronics
industry jobs.
So now is the time to
buy! Prices are going up, all our suppliers are saying to expect a
10-30% increase in prices of Chinese violins, cases, and bows, and so we
will forced to raise prices soon.
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