1958 Kurt Lothar Meisel 4/4 Violin

Overview: This is a beautifully-built violin. Kurt Meisel came from a long line of violinmakers in Germany and, postwar, he moved to Cleveland, OH and then to Owatonna, MN. He worked with Scherl & Roth for a while. The label is confusingly-marked, but suggests that this is an imported violin that was shop-adjusted by Meisel. I'm not sure, however, if these marks were added later by a retailer assuming it was built in Germany per Meisel's own confusingly-written label. Suffice to say, it sure looks like his own work (and thus made in Minnesota) -- nice and clean and tidy and well-executed and it sounds like a champ. Notes are clean, even, and balanced and the voice is full but not woofy.

Repairs included: Manny just gave this one a quick setup. It's playing spot-on and ready to serve.

• Weight: 1 lb 2 oz
• Scale length: 12 7/8"
• Nut width: 7/8"
• Neck shape: slim C
• Neck depth near nut: 3/4"
• Neck depth before heel: 13/16"
• Body length: 14"
• Body width: 8 1/4"
• Body depth: 1 1/2"
• Top wood: solid spruce
• Back & sides wood: solid flamed maple
• Bridge: maple
• Fingerboard: ebony
• Neck wood: maple
• String height: between classical and fiddle
• Strings: synthetic core
• Action height: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble at octave

Condition notes: It's very clean and has been well-cared-for. There are small spots of wear and light scratches here and there but overall it looks great. A different shop had done some good work on it in recent memory, so it arrived here essentially ready to go.

It comes with: It has a nice hard case.

Consignment tag: DNSC