My Alan Esty Violins

Back in the late 1980’s I decided to buy a violin on my own, the first time I had ever been in the position to do so.  I met an elderly couple near my home, Alan and Anne Esty, and discovered that Alan made violins and was interested in having me try them.  I went to their home and was taken through many rooms to the back violin shop, which immediately took me back to my childhood of visiting violin shops.  There, Alan had a cozy shop that overlooks a field and small, winding river in the mountains of New Hampshire, and with the smell of wood, glue, and his smoking pipe, I would stay for hours and try all his violins, just for fun.  Alan desperately wanted me to own one, and I finally chose one that was within my price range, being a 30-year old living in the hills of New Hampshire.  I chose #29, made in 1989, and my playing changed the day I took it home.  It has deep low strings and even, smooth high strings.  The sound was miles better than the violin I’d owned for 20 years, even though I cherished that violin too (that one was a 1907 American-made also.)   For the next ten years my playing improved (it was the practice, really), and I became closer and closer to the Estys, visiting their home frequently, trying out violins for Alan to give him my opinion, and always tuning them because they would hang in the wall case unplayed for months.  One year he wanted me to upgrade again, but it took a few years to convince me to spend more money on a second violin.  I eventually gave in when I fell in love with #47, made in 1996, with a sound as sweet as honey in my opinion.  I still own both #29 and 47, and love them both.  I call them my “Esty” violins.  Alan (the maker) is not on the web, so if you’re interested in checking out his violins, you need to contact me.

I have always been just a violin player, not a violin connoisseur, and have not tried to enter the market of judging instrument quality by its age or maker.  More so, I haven’t really cared if I own old or new, but now having owned two new ones for over a decade, I think I lean towards the new.  I like freshness.  

I have two bows, one I chose back in 1977, a French bow (Geneve) that now has indentations in the stick from my fingers, and a new one, made in Saskatchewan by bow maker Brian Johnson.  I love them both, especially the nimble action of the bow by Johnson.  My electric violin is a 5-string Vector Prodigy.  I had no idea what to choose for electric violins, so on a trip to Florida one Christmas I stopped off at The Electric Violin Shop in Greensboro, NC (I’m really doing some advertising now).  There “Blaise” let me play any instrument he had on the wall.  I wanted something different from my acoustic, so a 5-string was in order.  In the end I chose the Vector for it’s sound, and I’ve been working ever since to make a pleasing sound.  I’ve had to put in lots of slow, slow playing time to teach my fingers to play in tune on a wider neck, and my bow arm to learn the shallower angles of the bridge arc. Naturally, I also had to buy an effects box and a new amp to complement this instrument, so all has been a learning process for me, who has been steeped and content with the acoustic sound my entire life.