Conclusion
And now a few words regarding the process of regulating and developing the tone of a violin. It would in my judgment serve no useful purpose to attempt to publish details of the means employed, as I am satisfied that nothing short of practical exposition and demonstration (coupled with experience) will suffice to convey the knowledge which must be acquired by any one desiring to command anything like uniform success. “Thicknessing,” as it is termed, upon which such success is very largely dependent, is a variable and complex operation and cannot be learned from books; and the most that can be said is that after a violin is built its tone can be fundamentally altered, regulated, and developed by internal and external means to give such final results as the maker, or operator who develops the tone, may consider to be ideal. This is well enough understood by the best makers, but, for reasons which are fairly self-evident, those who practise it are very few indeed.
As much more is required of the student of tone development than a mere acquaintance with the means can give, a thorough working knowledge, leading to successful application, is best acquired by personal instruction from one acquainted with the complicated and ever-changing tonal problems presented by the newly-made violin, and experienced in dealing with them—just as I believe this art was imparted to pupils by masters in the “golden period” of violin-making; the measure of success achieved depending always upon the tone ideals of both the master and pupil, and the skill with which the process is employed to obtain his results. I hope a return will be made to the methods of that period, when tone reached its fullest perfection, to the end that the world may become richer in instruments possessing that quality of tone which is now almost exclusively associated with the violins produced by the “old masters.”