Rainer W. Leonhardt

We give special attention to setting up our instruments. The musician’s tools aren’t the gouges and planes with which we handcraft violins. His creativity is dependen t on t he pegs , sound pos t , br i dge , f i n- gerboard and t op nu t , f i ne- t uners and ch i n res t on h i s pa r t i cu l a r i ns t r umen t . V i o l i n sound and playability are greatly affected by the care taken with these components in the setting-up process. Qua l i t y i n t e rac t i on be tween t he p l aye r and h i s v i o l i n depend on i t . I t ’s no t wi t hou t reason , f or instance, that we speak of the sound post as the „soul“ of the instrument. Our sound pos t s and b r i dges — c ra f t ed excl us i ve l y f rom se l ec t ed , well seasoned, fine-grained spruce and maple — guarantee that the strings and the body of the in- strument will function as an integrated whole.