"You ask about my violin? It belonged to the famous Hawley collection,
and is a Giovanni Baptista Guadignini, made in 1780, in Turin. The back
is a single piece of maple-wood, having a broadish figure extending
across its breadth. The maple-wood sides match the back. The top is
formed of a very choice piece of spruce, and it is varnished a deep
golden-red. It has a remarkably fine tone, very vibrant and with great
carrying power, a tone that has all that I can ask for as regards volume
and quality.
"I think that wire strings are largely used now-a-days because gut
strings are hard to obtain--not because they are better. I do not use
wire strings. I have tried them and find them thin in tone, or so
brilliant that their tone is too piercing. Then, too, I find that the
use of a wire E reduces the volume of tone of the other strings. No
wire string has the quality of a fine gut string; and I regard them only
as a substitute in the case of some people, and a convenience for lazy
ones.