August 2017
I am delighted and entranced with my violin, and am very grateful to Martin for bringing us together. It has a beautiful, yet characterful tone, with notes remaining pure right up in the high register; and so responsive – a joy to play. I can hardly believe how lucky I am to own it.
I had a dream to buy a fine violin for several years but, thinking that the process would be intimidating and overwhelming for a musical ingénue such as myself, kept putting it off. I was wrong. I can, in all honesty, say that it was actually enjoyable. Martin let me try out a room full of instruments over several hours, popping in from time to time to give welcome advice, but never the hard sell. Eventually I had a shortlist of 3, which I was allowed to take home on trial. I felt under no obligation to buy, but it did rapidly become apparent that there was one violin, above the others, that I kept wanting to pick up and play, so the choice was easy. I am impressed that this was the instrument that Martin had mentally marked down as “having my name on it” right from the start.
Shelagh Winship, Scotland