Unique Opportunity to See Great Instruments

The Art of Sound: An Exhibtion of Violins and Violas by Today's Master Makers
which runs March 19 - April 9, 2010 is open! This year we have more instruments than ever and the makers represented in the show are among the most well known.

It is an opportunity to see and hear fine violins and violas made by some of the best living makers in the world.

The show is free and open to the public during regular business hours.
Monday, 1-5pm
Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 6pm
Saturday, 11am - 5pm

Special Event Coming Soon:
On March 30th, we will host the first ever benefit auction for the Omaha Conservatory's Scholarship Fund hosted by Hal France. Enjoy a wine tasting, an auction of instruments from the show starting at incredibly low prices, and a performance on show instruments.
Details below

A. Cavallo Violins LLC
Benefit Auction

Proceeds will benefit the
Omaha Conservatory of Music's Scholarship Fund

The purpose of the Conservatory's Scholarship Fund is to aid those students
who show great potential and are also demonstrate financial need.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010
7:30 pm

-Wine Tasting-
-Performance-
-Instrument Auction of Show Instruments-

Hal France,Celebrity Host

Tickets are $28.00 a person

For reservations call
402.827.9270 or 1.877.838.6222
or come by the A. Cavallo Violins, LLC at 87th & Pacific (in Countryside Village)

Reservations will be on a first come first served basis. Space is limited.
Our events are great fun and usually sell out, so call us early to reserve your place.
We look forward to hearing from you!

If you can't come to the event but you want to bid on an instrument see below:

CAN I BID ON AN INSTRUMENT EVEN IF I CAN’T COME TO THE EVENT MARCH 30TH?
Yes. You may bid on an instrument using our Absentee Bidding System. Absentee bids will be accepted by mail, phone, or e-mail up until Saturday, March 27th at 5:00 pm. Please have your bids in as early as possible so that we will be able to effectively bid for you. For full details of the Absentee Bidding System, contact A. Cavallo Violins, LLC or see our website.

CAN I BID ON AN INSTRUMENT CONFIDENTIALLY?
Yes. A. Cavallo Violins, LLC will use the strictest measures of confidentiality maintaining and executing absentee bids.

CAN I BID ON AN INSTRUMENT AND DONATE IT TO THE OMAHA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC IF I WIN?
Yes. The Conservatory will benefit from the proceeds of the instrument you purchase and then benefit again from the gift of a beautiful instrument to lend to a worthy student in need.

CAN I SEE THE INSTRUMENTS BEFORE THE AUCTION?
Yes. We would be happy for you to come by A. Cavallo Violins, LLC to see the instruments. You may wish to set up an appointment by calling 402.827.9270 or toll free 877.838.6222.

CAN I SEE THE INSTRUMENTS ONLINE BEFORE THE AUCTION IF I LIVE OUT OF TOWN?
Yes. Pictures & descriptions of instruments are available on www.acavalloviolins.com under Special Events.

Upcoming Shop Event

The Art of Sound:

An Exhibition of Today's Master

Violin and Viola Makers

On Friday, March 13, 2009, we will open the The Art of Sound: An Exhibition of Today's Master Violin & Viola Makers. The show will be a rare opportunity to see and hear over 100 fine violins and violas made by some of the best living makers in the world. A. Cavallo Violins, LLC will have instruments from across the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, England, China, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. All instruments in the show will be available for purchase. We are in a golden period of violin making; the materials, craftsmanship and artistry today are unrivaled in history. Come and experience the art of violin and viola making at its best!

Special events will be featured each weekend. The opening event on Saturday, March 14 at 7 p.m. is a wine and violin tasting with Bob Bolden, wine master and performances by David Neely and William Wolcott on instruments from the exhibition. Tickets are $28.00 per person and must be purchased in advance. Contact us directly for additional information and to reserve your seat, as there are a limited number of tickets.

Dates: March 13 - 28

Times:
Mon. 1 - 5 pm
Tues. - Fri. 11 am - 7 pm
Sat. 11 am - 5 pm
Special Events TBA

Location:
A. Cavallo Violins, LLC
8705 Shamrock Rd.
Omaha, NE 68114

Please contact us with any questions regarding our upcoming instrument exhibition:
402.827.9270
(Toll Free)877.838.6222
acvsales@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,
The Staff at A. Cavallo Violins, LLC

Shipping Horrors

     If one were to ask me what the most daunting task is here at A. Cavallo, it would definitely be coming in on Monday after the weekend and realizing I have forty new orders to pack and ship. Keep in mind, the mailman comes at 3:30 and I arrive at work at 1:00. Two and a half hours is a cruel time frame to put one under when there are thirty or more orders to fill. Nevertheless, this time frame must be met in order to keep this company of five employees running.

     From my experience and employment here at A. Cavallo so far, I have been given privileged access into the company’s dealings. One thing which stands out to me is how much the Gleasel Ultra Practice Mute is in demand. In the morning, I will usually have twenty orders to fill. It is not surprising to me if half of those orders be Glaesel Practice Mutes. People throughout the United States and around the world have a great desire for these rather ugly pieces of rubber. Individuals in distant countries such as Indonesia will gladly pay a hefty amount in shipping costs in order to have a Glaesel Mute priced at only $3.99. The substantial price increase for international shipment does not seem to deter people from acquiring these popular mutes. The economy may be going downhill, but demand for the Glaesel Mute remains strong.

     Once everything is packed and ready to go, it is then taken down the block to await the mail truck, which is supposed to be there at 3:30. There have been times where the mail truck never comes and one of our employees ends up running the mail to the post office. This is without question a nuisance and a waste of time for the company. However, we know that there is a person somewhere in the world in need of the Glaesel Practice Mute and we will go the extra length to make sure that mute arrives at its destination, wherever that may be.

 -Daniel Jacobsen

Maker's Spotlight: German Bow Maker Otto Pfretzschner

It seems like our online auction has experienced a resurgence with a slew of great makers' works coming into our hands. This week, we are privileged to offer a very fine bow probably made by Otto Pfretzschner.

The Pfretzschner family was one of the most prolific and well known bow making families in the late 19th to twentieth centuries. Otto Pfretzschner is one of the lesser known members of that family, referred to in the Roda "Bows for Musical Instruments" as the son of Hermann Richard. The workmanship of this bow is top caliber, with lovely graduation and a elegant "swans" head. The wood in these older bows is often unrivaled for strength and response. We estimate this bow to be made around 1950 and has all of the original parts.

This bow has a solid feel in the hand, producing a rich colorful tone, and is warm and resonant in sound quality. It is a very quick and agile bow that sacrifices no strength in the stick for lightness of touch. It would make a great Mendelssohn or Bach bow for the artist.

This bow has a beautiful octagonal pernambuco stick that has perfect camber. It is set in silver and ebony, with a plain eye and divided button. It weighs 74 grams when haired. This bow is in excellent condition, with no issues to be concerned about!

Once again, it was brought to us for consignment by a very serious amateur cellist who loves it but is ready to move on to a different type of stick. German silver mounted master made violin bows of this quality are seldom seen on eBay. Bows like this are often offered at $3,000.00 and above routinely. There will be a great home for this outstanding bow with a lucky cellist somewhere!

German Violin Bow Stamped "Marie"

We are privileged to offer this very fine bow probably made by one of the finest German makers of 20th Century. This bow was a custom made bow for a mysterious "Marie." The reason we know that is that the ferrule was beautifully engraved with her name to commemorate this probably lovely and dynamic violinist!

This work of art was brought to us by a professional violinist who has many bows. It was played in several professional orchestras, and has been professionally restored to excellent condition by a fine professional restorer.

In our opinion this bow is possibly from the shop of Nuremburger. it is stamped "Alex Hermann" on one side and "Germany" on the other. Nuremburger's shop produced many bows for different commercial establishments. The workmanship of this bow is top caliber, with lovely graduation and a elegantly turned up nose to the head. We estimate this bow to be made around 1910 and has all of the original parts except probably the button. Pre-World War One bows like this in this condition are a rarity.

This bow has a solid feel in the hand, producing a rich colorful tone, and is lively and responsive for all strokes. Sautille and Spiccato a breeze with this beautiful stick. It would make a great all around bow for the artist.

This bow has a beautiful round pernambuco stick that has perfect camber. It is set in silver and ebony, with a plain eye and solid silver button. It has a unique rounded front ferrule and stunning three color silk winding with and ostrich skin thumb leather. It weighs 61 grams when haired. This bow is in excellent condition, with no issues to be concerned about!

Fine Violin Bow M.O Beilke in Excellent Condition

Antique Hand Made Guitar on Ebay

Well here's an unusual one. We were asked to see if we could auction off a guitar on eBay a few weeks back. We have no idea how well this could go for, but it's the holidays online shopping season and anything can happen on the net.

Antique Violin labeled Panormo

Antique French Violin Bow

Violin Website Woes

Sorry to you readers out there for not keeping up on the old blog. We've gone from three posts a week to once if we can make it due to all the business. Don't believe me? Just look at my outbox! It's overflowing with all the online customer databasing I'm having to keep up with.

Speaking of e-commerce, we've taken a massive overhaul over the old website. It's now php driven so a lot of the mechanics of the website occurs from scripts on a server. In another words, the shopping experience is now designed to be more consumer friendly and dynamically driven for searches.

Our webmaster, Nestor, has been real patient through the whole process. Alex would be constantly relaying messages during the whole developmental phase. He was also kind enough to let me in on some of the planning aspects as well. I'll have to interview about him one day in our blog. He's got an interesting background that ranges from being a talented programmer to a professional flutist.

Nestor pulls most of the strings in the website operation, but we have to do our part too. Every single item that you see on the website has to be filled out in a special form as part of the website interface. Typically each form item has the following things to fill out:

• SKU number
• title
• manf.
• description
• short description
• product type
• item type
• level (entry, intermediate,artist)
• 1 main image path link for
  
• 7 path links for images stored on the server
• 3 options (e.g., wood: ebony, rosewood, boxwood)
• website price
• m.s.r.p.
• shipping
• oversize
• tax (enter 0 for no tax)
• sold out (enter 1 for out of stock items)

That's just a preview of all the details I've gone through to get this website up and running. I made the first pass by filling out the potential selling items and then Alex checked each copy. Then I'd make my second pass by uploading photos to the server for each item. Sounds easy enough, except, when one image can yield as many as four different dimensions and 7 different views. Example, a violin with its various views of its front, back, side, scroll, midsection, label, button, means each of one needs to be resized to a tiny, main, large image, and one thumbnail sized image.

(6 images x 3 sizes )+ ( 1 main image x 4 sizes)= 22 images to upload

It's also a nightmare to correctly label these image files as well. Thank goodness, Nestor found us a batch renaming software.

As of now, we've gotten most of the accessory items up. Some of the instrument images need to be updated after our upgrade in our downstairs lighting studio. All I can say is that this is an ever evolving project:)

Antique Violin labeled GA Pfretzschner

A Brand New Website

When I first started working at A. Cavallo Violins, LLC I had some very small goals for the shop's e-commerce venture. First, startup a successful auction service with an eBay account. Second, to sell string instrument accessories through Amazon.com. And third, to revamp the old website into a clean and accessible online store. As of this week, I'm proud to say that we've reached all those goals!

Our eBay profile just about has 100 stars and we've conducted hundreds of Amazon transactions online. Now, the website is ready to go for the holidays so please check it out!

Get all your fellow musician's holiday shopping online with us but always stop by to say 'hi'.

p.s. give us some feedback on the website as it's always an evolving project.

Antique French Violin Labled Le Blonde Luthier 1772

Antique Violin Case by Hill & Sons

This is a beautiful violin case that came to the shop. The case originally held the Pietro Grulli violin that was auctioned off a few weeks ago. It's in excellent condition and we think it came from the Hill & Son violin shop-note the stamp on the lock.

Antique French Violin Labeled "Le Blonde Luthier"

I promise to get back to posting more business articles and shop related postings but I had to promote our latest eBay auction. The last auction went really well and hope that the winning bidder will be happy with the item and stop by our blog as well:) Click on over for the antique French violin.

Anyway, Alex and I have been coming up with some ideas for more lengthy future posts. There's a lot of knowledge that's gets passed back and forth from casual conversations over the workbench. I don't necessarily have the time to take notes but I have thought of publishing excerpts from our dialogue about certain topics. Excerpt interview posts would be more formal and would probably take up time but might be informative to the readers. Really cool idea for the business would be to post podcasts or vlogcasts if I ever get around to it:)

For a more near future postings, will plan to post about the how certification versus the appraisal process is done. Good area to know for any musician or collector as this seems to bring about the vague area of the business.

Violin labeled Eduardo Pietro Grulli: the latest eBay item

Amazon has taken over the majority of the day in terms of the volume of e-commerce traffic we do here. Over on eBay, the typical things we auction off are used parts such as pegs, chinrests, tailpieces, endbuttons, bridges, tuners, and even endpins. However, eBay still manages to surprise as we auction off instruments that have been cosigned to us.

This time though, we think we've got a good consigned violin to offer those collectors, restorers, or speculators. It's an Italian violin that was brought to us by another one of our elderly visitors who inherited it from his grandfather who brought it over from his motherland about 90 years ago. (I really should keep record of all the heirloom stories we hear from these people).

A solid beautiful example of late 19th century violin making. It has the correct proportions, a beautiful arching, and the varnish is golden brown oil layered.

The widget I've embedded on the blog is one of the things that might slow you down for you readers with dial up connection. I suppose I could just have a url link here to the online auction if you're browser turns off these widgets.

Speaking of widgets, I've also added another on the side column for BlogRush. It's a nice widget that shows the latest blog posting headlines 24/7 from a vast network of blogs. You can specify which category your blog might fit in (this one is music). I've also found it to be a good way to generate traffic. It's still a beta product but I think it's catching on as I saw some major bloggers started utilizing it like Double Bass Blog. If any one wants an invite, let me know. I can send an invite your way.

Online Orders and Arrival of the Negroni Violin

I was only gone for two days of business when I returned Monday morning to see a lengthy list of Amazon orders that had piled up. We'll take any increase in online sales but lately the processing of the order has become a chore.

The first time we did this online processing routine, we were excited by something as small as a cake of rosin in a day. It was a HUGE deal for us:) Now however, the routine has become somewhat of a chore. The procedure is as follows: check Amazon Seller Central, print out all orders, invoice the customer's orders and print them out as well, package, stick on address labels, weigh, slap on some postage, and repeat all previous steps.

The repetitive nature has forced us to come up with an efficient assembly line system. Still, I managed to fall behind on databasing of last week's batch of Amazon orders. Case in point, those Glaesel Practice Mutes.

These rubber mutes mount on top of the bridge and deaden the sound of whatever instrument is being played. There are plenty of rubber mutes out there in the Tourte or round shapes, ebony or metal materials, yet we can't go a day without selling one. We always have trouble keeping them in stock.

[Glaesal Ultra Practice Mute]

On the brick and mortar side of things, two new wonderful instruments were received in our shop. I'll only have time to blog about one instrument in this post. First, a violin by a Cremonese maker Massimo Negroni. His violins are in the tradition of the great Italian makers such as Stradivarius or Guarnerius.

[Negroni 2006, front]

If you haven't heard of who he is, check out his teaching bio on his webpage. Not only is he a violin maker but he is man of authority and credentials in the violin world. He founded the ALI (Associazione Liutai Italiani) and the Consorzio Liutai e Archettai "A. Stradivari" in Cremona.

[Negroni]

Not only is he a maker but a restorationer, conservator, and a teacher. I found this part to be the most interesting in his curriculum, as he is the head of a radiography team at A.Stradivari"International Institute of Violin Making (I.P.I.A.L.L.). The school takes a very scientific approach to violin making as they examine the wood grains of violin tops with x-rays and conduct acoustic experiments on instruments.

I'll try to post on the other violin, another Cremonese maker by the name of, Angelo Sperzaga.

Tweaking the rentals

We're doing some major changes to the A. Cavallo website. The static HTML information based page will still be up and running but we are planning for a PHP data driven component as well. This means visitors can search the site for keywords and even order specific items as well. You can see some of this already on our home page with a new tab called "Rentals" is added and a brief box announcement on "Online Rentals".

Speaking of rentals, I got to help proof some of the language of the rental documents and take photos that are now on the website. We set up a couple of painter's lights in the show room gallery. Snapped some photos on a tripod, and they're online. Webmaster Nestor went back to fix up the shot with a soft lighting affect.

eBay Cello prep

If you haven't noticed, we do a lot of things besides the old retail activities that take place in the brick and mortar world. With Amazon.com & eBay, we've been able to go regional and national! Of course, this inevitably means more work on our part to consign and sell in a proper manner.

Take for example eBay. We just started last August with a few instruments thrown up there for practice and experimentation. eBay is referred to as the "Wild West" around the shop because of its quirks of penny bids, buy-now's, trick photography, incomprehensible descriptions, etc. Well, all of that isn't meant to be negative, since there are plenty of sharks, speculators, or amateur collectors that are out there for a bargain.

So, as trained pros at a violin shop what can we do to help buyers from being so wary? Well, for one, we're up front and honest about the condition of the instrument. This of course means taking photos of any damages or repair work, citing correct measurements, and even encouraging bidders to ask us questions. Second, we take a lot of time in preparing each auction item. We do any repairs setups that we're willing to risk, polish it up, photo-shoot, and deliver with insured packing.

Today, we're prepping another item up for bid. A hand carved German cello that's been consigned to us for auction online. The top has taken a beating with some significant cracks near the sound post and bass bar. The consignor says, "Sell it as is," but at the bare minimum we have to glue up some open seams and polish away its grime.

I'll have to show you another series on the glue process for closing seams but here is the cello with its clamps

The polish you're seeing being used is a water based. Something to keep in mind for all you string players out there, stick to this type since others can strip the varnish. Although it is a liquid, it contains tiny granules that smooth the surface when rubbed. It's the same idea used in polishing a camera lens. More careful polishing steps to be discussed in the future posts.

Next, the cello is sent to our mini lighting studio for a photo shoot. It's another make shift project worth blogging about. Here's the cello with lights, camera, and action.

And finally, thanks to software such as eBay's TurboLister, it enables us to crank out templates of listing descriptions that can be tweaked and modified. Will show you the results of the listing in the coming days.