i came across this great quote

[alocispepraluger102]

"I play on a 4/4 violin since I was ten. The quality of my instruments has improved over time: Ventapane, Gagliano and Testore to a Guarneri del Gesu in 1998. Yet I had not been happy with this violin and I changed to a Stradivarius [the "Booth" from 1716, owned by the Nippon Music Foundation] on which I played four years and that filled me. But I always wanted to have my own instrument. So six years ago, I bought in London, on the advice of concertmaster of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, one of my best friends, Guadagnini from 1742. It's actually like a man: you can not find the perfect violin but one learns to love his faults." - Julia Fischer, August 2010