Spring Clearance Sale!

Hello friends! Right now we have an amazing storewide Spring Clearance Sale going on until the 1st of June. We have already had a great response during this sale and have been able to equip players of all ages, from the beginner to the performing artist with beautiful instruments, cases, and bows while they SAVE BIG! We are very excited with the outcome so far and want to make sure every player out there knows about this wonderful sale.

Below are some examples of qualifying instruments. We hope that this opportunity will fulfill the needs of the player in your life. Please contact us directly for more specific information on qualifying instruments.

Sincerely,

A. Cavallo Violins, LLC

Used Violin Outfits Each of these instruments are hand-carved under the supervision of a European master by fine craftsmen in Beijing, China. They have all of the features of a professional instrument, from the ebony fingerboard and pegs, the aged Himalayan spruce and maple, the hand-applied multi-layered spirit varnish, the tailpiece with four fine tuners, the Dominant, Vision or ProArte strings, and an Aubert French bridge. Each outfit is fitted in Omaha by the experts at A. Cavallo Violins, LLC. The outfit includes a suspension case and brazilwood bow that has an ebony frog and Siberian Stallion horsehair. Outfit includes: Violin, Bow, & Case A. Cavallo Retail: $500 Clearance Price: as low as $200

Concert Series Instruments We specially select these instruments for the advancing student and serious amateur. Each instrument features straight-grained spruce tops, complimented by handsomely flamed maple back, sides, and scroll. The hand-finished shaded or antiqued varnish gives each instrument a striking appearance. Examples of our concert instruments that will take the student to the next level! Violin A. Cavallo Retail: $1,750 Clearance Price: $900 Viola A. Cavallo Retail: $1.900 Clearance Price: $800 Double Bass 35% off select instruments (These instruments are sold without case and bow.)

Artistic Level Instruments Master Instruments Master Instruments are up to 50% off, such as Wojciech Topa, Gunther Lobe, Dimitar Dimitrov, Tansin Diedenbeck, Pavel Onoaie, and Janxin Wu. Violins finished by American Makers These instruments are finished by American makers specifically for Musaica Imports. A. Cavallo Retail: $4,000 Clearance Price: $2,000 (These violins are sold without case and bow.) Cello by Clement & Weise By Clement & Weise of Germany this cello is one of the standards of excellence for tone production and quality among current makers. It is based on a classic Stradivarius pattern with highly accurate measurements, wood thicknesses, and attractive and faithful antique finish. This results in an instrument which can carry the player well into the advanced stages of performance with a minimum investment. This is the introductory instrument in the Clement & Weise line but is in no way a compromise in tonal quality. A. Cavallo Retail: $4,950 Clearance Price: $2,500 (This cello is sold without case and bow.)

Anderson Music Stand This beautiful Anderson Music Stand by Lotus Design is a rich blend of classic beauty and performance. Several patented mechanisms were created to achieve a unique combination of portability and functionality. Handcrafted from the finest Brazilian Cherry or walnut, the Anderson Music Stand will enhance the joy of your musical experience. The desk height varies from 20" - 52" while the exclusive snap-and-lock mechanism allows you to choose six different desk angles and the extra-deep shelf accommodates heavy books or folders. It features aluminum hardware which has been anodized in a rich gold color coating that is extremely durable and will never tarnish. The stand comes with a handy durable padded carrying case with an adjustable shoulder strap. A. Cavallo Retail: $295 Clearance Price: $250

Accessories Discount Receive 25% off cases and bows with any instrument purchase. All accessories are sold at the lowest possible price (Between 10-30% off list price)

Double Bass Blog: In Search of the Perfect Bow

If you don't have access to the Strings Magazine Buyer's Guide 2008, you can always check out what the bloggers have to say about buying that next musical investment. The other day, I was perusing Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog and found a great post in "In Search of the Perfect Bow".

[Jason with a perfect bow?]

The Strings Magazine's articles describes how buyers should think with their money, especially in cyberspace. Jason's article also touches upon this subject as well but does a good job of describing the qualities and trail methods you should employ when bow shopping. The article covers other areas of worthy interests such as what to expect from typical early student bows, factors to consider when moving up a grade, and possibly having a bow commissioned to be made.

The Viral Garden: A Marketing Blog's View of Corner Violin Shop

I couldn't stop grinning last week when a customer told us they were looking for possible local teachers after reading from Corner Violin Shop. It feels great when people not only recognize you from cyberspace but can also trust you enough to inquire about you in real life:)

On top of that , I got a tip from blogger Daltonsbriefs that marketing blog The Viral Garden did a nice critique on our blog. We happened to be featured in their series called the Company Blog Checkup Series. This popular series features a company's blog and examines how effective it is to the reader in terms of content, visual layout, timeliness of postings, and how comments are dealt. Basically, this blog provides some informative criticism for other small business blogger hopefuls and of course for the featured company.

"As a whole, the Corner Violin Shop's blog is a decent blog and probably very similar to many small businesses that decide to start a blog themselves. My key suggestions going forward would be to give us more pictures/information on the writers and workers themselves, and to also do everything possible to get the word out about the blog to existing customers. If possible, also spend some time online on forums and social sites contributing to the community. Doing so is a wonderful and vital tool in promoting your blog."

-The Viral Garden (Jan. 28, 2008)

Viral Garden is written by Mack Collier, a social media consultant, whose focus is on a "community-first" approach to marketing using social media. He has some wonderful tips for any of you dealers or makers out there that want to get their names out.

I've decided to take some of his advice and plan to do some work on the following:

• Reintegrate staff pictures with updated bio information
• 3 consistent publishing dates a week: M,W,F or Tues, Thur,Sat?
• Move up the Feeds & Bookmarking badges
• Work on creating a Facebook network
  

Thank you for the tip Daltonsbriefs and thanks for your critique The Viral Garden.

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:)

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.

String Repair.com: A Smart String Business Website

We know that we've been a bit delayed on posting some of our repair work and projects but we will get to to them soon. We've had plenty to document with the camera but just haven't had the time to post. The best repair work that's come in this week is a piece of an 1/8th size violin scroll that has broken off from the peg box. Will show you the damage!

Speaking of repair work, we'd like to point a shop website out there that's doing similar things to what we are doing here on the blog. That is, photo documenting their repair and restoration work.

The website StringRepair.com was started by Upton Bass String Instrument, Co. The company is more known for its work on string basses but they also deal with other instruments as well. It has a main website but cannot house and format their portfolio of repair work photos. Thus, StringRepair.com was created.

The website has tabs for each string instrument repair that you might be interested in. Each on has big detailed pop out photos, even some in x-rays, and the latest completed repair projects. It's a good thing they included a bow section as well, as this is often the one area that a player can protect himself from bad practice with a little bit of knowledge.

Other tabs on the site features their repair staff. A quick glance at the bios will not only tell you if they have received training, but describes which method they have been schooled in for repair. You can even find out what it takes to become a repair man in the FAQ's.

Being impressed with the site, we had to contact somebody at Upton Bass to see if they similar blogging goals in mind like ours. We did get a response back from them saying:

"...I never intended stringrepair to be a blog...but honestly I started it before there were "blogs"! Originally it was just a way to keep owners informed of what we were doing to their instruments. It evolved...and it is still fun to go in and write about the repair process once completed."

[Eric Rene Roy, Luthier]

Technically, String Repair is not a blog like us but the goals seems to be relatively the same. In our blogging goals post, we hoped that this blog could be a " tool to educate" and "create debate". Perhaps this Q&A from their site sums up what we feel is so great about them.

"Q: Why is Upton Bass GIVING away all of this information?

A: Although pictures can speak 1000 words...pictures do not give you the years of hand & tool skills that must be acquired through professional training and daily practice to complete these repairs. What we can demonstrate in 100 pictures might actually take a year to complete. Some key steps are sometimes omitted or shown from distracting points of view. Not every repair is as cut and dry as we present it...and sometimes we debate as a group the best possible way to achieve the results we are striving for while taking into consideration many different factors. Our goal with this site is to create an informed instrument owner who is aware and appreciative of the amount of work and training these repairs take, and hopefully to ultimately entrust us with the work they need."

[www.StringRepair.com.faq]

We're glad to have found another shop that's adding a layer of transparency and education to the string business. Typical small violin shops try to represent their business practices by posting estimates for repair, maintenance fees, and some educational or bio information to bolster the credibility of their repair work they do. These guys have taken a step further by actually showing how your money is spent for the service being performed and educating customers.

Related Posts & Links:

• Self Congratulatory Post & Blogging Goals
  
• StringRepair.com

Angelo Sperzaga Violin

The other violin that I did not have time to blog about was the 2004 Sperzaga.

[2004 Sperzaga, front & back]

Although the violin we received is relatively new, Sperzaga has been around the violin making process for some time now. He graduated from the International Violin Making Institute of Cremona in 1986 and has made his rounds under the apprenticeship system over in Italy. I've tried to read up some more on his biography but many of the sources listed on the websites are price quotes or lists of awards and accomplishes by the maker.

If I could read Italian though, I might have better luck understanding his website. Nice Flash based informational website but unfortunately under construction as I found the English links to be of no use.

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.

Self Congratulatory Post and Blogging Goals

As if blogging about this old shop's daily life wasn't any more self promotional, I had to mention the nice review we got on Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog.

"Even though I've never met these folks personally or had any work done by them, I would feel comfortable recommending them to people for string repairs and purchases. This is solely due to having "met" them and learned about their projects through their blog. Blogging with honesty about even straightforward events."

You can read up on more of the lauding we receive but I'm glad Jason's pointed out one of the things we're trying accomplish with this blog. Jason describes it as adding an honest "transparency" to the way the violin shop is run to establish customer relationships.

Well that's certainly true, we'd like to take it a step further. We hope that Corner Violin Shop can be a tool to educate community and customers of the practices in this industry. While we do not profess to hold the absolute "truth" on the proper and ethical practices, we want to be one of the many contributing voices in this quest for what is "right" in this business.

Not to sound too elitist though, we also want you bloggers to be a part of this mission to create debate for the best practices. We encourage you all to respond to our posts with comments, shoot us an email with questions, or tell us your opinion on some of our commentary we post.

If we're able to get a real live debate going on this blog, wouldn't it be wonderful if other violins shops started blogging as well? Then I could really act on my fantasy projects like starting up a blog community of string instrument shops. What the net currently offers are more scattered directories on various social networking sites and others are not consumer friendly. For example, Maestronet is a wonderful place for makers and shops to correspond and research instruments in the archive. However, this site would have trouble answering the very basic technical questions that a beginning player asks, "And how do I know your repair method isn't going screw up my instrument?"

Well that's enough of my rant on. I have the weekend off and I'm posting on a Friday night!
Hope Alex can survive the school rush that's about to hit the shop.

In closing, I'd like to thanks Jason for that nice blog post he wrote up. If you haven't already done so, please do check out his blog at: Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog

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.

Double Bass Setups and Places to Congregate

We are back! Our boss has returned from his long needed vacation. Meanwhile we have been busily fixing and tweaking our various online sites over at MySpace, eBay, and here at Blogger. All this online social networking exciting has gotten us excited.

First off, for this posts' agenda: please check out David Heath's Double Bass Blog. For any of you bass players or makers, since there relatively few of you around, this is a much needed place for you all to congregate in cyberspace. David seems to be very active with numerous projects such as a podcast show "Contrabass Conversations" and his soon to be director position on International Society of Bassists. Some day, we'd love to have this blog as sophisticated as his but we're still a long ways from that.

Speaking of basses, when the sales rep from Texas came by with the bows, we happened to purchase a great carved bass from them to help ease their load in their already crowded van. What follows are some photos showing how this 3/4 size beast was setup.

Onto the operating table upstairs. The bass's back is protected from scratching with linen free cloth.
You can't see it in this shot, but we have a small neck rest to stabilize the instrument when the sound post is being propped up. Probing into the f-holes is the black sound post setter.

The shot of the bridge with the feet set in place seems to a simple "plop-and-drop" deal but this is actually the most difficult part. Les had to work on correctly carving out the feet of the bridge so they would match the top's surface. Small but proportionate details that can alter how the bass sounds.
This is a two man effort as the gear mechanism on bass is wound by one person and the other has to make sure the cable like strings anchored into the tailpiece and set on the right bridge notch.And there you go! Les takes it for a test drive and he's giddy as heck. It's the first time we've had a column of basses in the shop for him to try- but most importantly maintain them.