1908 Friedrich August Heberlein Violin – Markneukirchen, Germany

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I grew up in the New York/New Jersey area. With close to eight million people in that area and well before “Antiques Road Show” my dad and I gathered quite a collection of instruments and bows with no help from cell phones or computers. With a decade of collecting as a teenager with my dad (1974- 1984), we purchased hundreds of violins, violas and over 1,200 decent mostly German bows. As a young kid, I was into carving, instrument restoration, and anything related to baseball. If the stick and violin were in decent condition, we bought them. Carving and music were in my family as my dad was a fantastic bird carver. If you come to the violin shop you can see some of his birds. Somehow, I have 10 carvings that did not get sold. They are here in the shop, and a few are at my home. Many times, we came away with beautiful instruments and a bunch of bows. We mostly sought older German instruments.

This Heberlein violin is exactly like many of these older beautiful German finds. It has choice woods, a fine grain spruce top, and a highly flamed two-piece maple back. The fittings are cut in South American rosewood. The violin is ready for another 100 hundred years and more. I have gone over the entire violin, and it is set up with Evah Pirazzi strings. The dark oil varnish in contrast with the lighter varnished edges set this violin apart. The dark look is beautiful in a Guarnerius model violin. Markneukirchen violins from makers like Roth, Heberlein, Gutter, Paul Knoor, Reinhold Schmidt, George Schuster, Muller, Johs Brueckner, Voight, Glasel, Geipel, and Fritz Monnig are poplar instruments in our showroom because of how they were made and how they sound. I am always adding German violins to our section of fine stringed instruments. Currently, I have 15 German violins on my workbench, set to be completed by November 2026.

Corpus 358.0. Major Width 203.5 mm. Minor Width 166.5 mm. Rib Height 31.0 mm.

Playing a Markneukirchen violin is a great experience. The German workmanship that goes into these instruments combined with the highest quality wood produces instruments that have a beautiful sound. The violin pops with resonance as I laid into the bottom end to do some Scottish fiddling tunes. The violin has depth and a very nice maturity to the sound. The instrument speaks clearly and is easy to get around on. The tone leans to the darker side of the scale, but the treble voice (the E and A strings) sings with brilliance. I love this brilliance in a violin when I’m playing fiddling tunes. The violin has power; one just has to lay into the strings to make this violin come alive. The instrument has a gutsy depth on the lower strings. It does not disappoint at any level. An excellent Markneukirchen violin with the sound I would expect on a 100 plus year-old violin.