Hi all! Sorry for the late reply. I got my fiddle from Gianna’s yesterday, and I couldn’t put it down! Then I had to go to church (no, I’m not a 7th day adventist. Our church has a contemporary service on Saturdays), and then we had a thunderstorm.
So now I can finally post about my new pride and joy! It came yesterday at 1:30 pm, and I fevorishly opened it like a kid at Christmas. 
Now I didn’t see a picture of the fiddle before I bought, so I wasn’t exactly sure what it would look like. It’s a really nice looking instrument. It’s done so it looks like an antique (or at least it will after some time of use.), and the back has GORGEOUS figured wood.
Here are some pics! ;D
Now, I didn’t end up getting a very nice bow to go with it, but Steve was able to find something that would fit in my budget and was decent. Even though this isn’t a top notch bow, it’s a great improvement from my old one. 
As I was going through the case looking for the rosin, I found some candy stuffed in the little storage comparment. Yum! lol
I am so happy with my new fiddle. I sound a lot better now, and it really can handle fast songs so much better than my old one. Steve said it was powerful, and I can really feel it! I feel the power! lol
I am so pleased with my new fiddle and doing business with Steve. He really did try to find instrument good for me and trying to get it within my budget. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Steve to anyone looking into a new instrument.
G2g and play my new fiddle now! ;D
Cool. I know what fun it is getting a new instrument! Enjoy!
Congratulations Sara! Wow, that’s a real beauty! I love the figure on the back.
That’s a lot better fiddle than that one we were all talking you out of last month. See what happens when you shop around? LOL!
Do I understand correctly that it is a new fiddle that has been ‘aged’ to make it look old? I never saw that done on a violin, but I know they do it with guitars and mandolins. That’s really neat. I’ll bet it sounds even nicer than it looks!
I’m sure you’ll get a lot of use out of it. Now go make some joyfull noise!!!
Congrats on a new violin! Always a rush, as with any instrument!
Do I understand correctly that it is a new fiddle that has been ‘aged’ to make it look old? I never saw that done on a violin, but I know they do it with guitars and mandolins.
Violing are very often finished to look old and worn. This is often because the violin is made as a copy of another violin, and some makers go ‘all out’ to try to match the aged finish of the older instrument. On celtic_lass’s instrument, you can see the top shoulders are lighter yellow (a typical ‘ground’ colour for the first coat of varnish), as well as the bottom bouts, and the bottom of the back. These show contact points from the player’s hands, and depending on the age, the bottom bouts show where a player would have held a baroque violin (with no chin rest) under their chin.
This violin looks real nice, and looks to be a pretty good antique-ing process. It could be the pictures, but does the violin have a really glossy top coat? I’ve always been into a matte finish, and a super gloss kind of hurts the illusion of looking antiqued (unless is was french polished…). General playing and handling will reduce the sheen over time.
Steve does great work. I believe he does use a french polish for many, if not all of his instruments. He has his own varnish recipe and frequently has expressed dislike of the hard, shiny varnishes that some use. Like Gliga.
As we found from Sara’s posting over on fiddleforum, this instrument is one made for Gianna’s Violins overseas and finished up by Steve there in Tennessee.
My next fiddle may well be a Steve Perry benchmade. Only 6k, and a bargain at that price. It will only take me 5 or 6 years to save up for it. Maybe by then I’ll be able to actually play the fiddle. 