Hi Maeve,

All fiddles change in tone over the years and with playing!

The Scientists can show that the wood of the fiddle undergoes a temporary change when being played regularly by the same player. If it is left idle these changes reverse it is all to do with the alignment of the fibres and the carrying of the sound waves.

I know some fiddlers who claim their fiddle sounds different after about 45 mins of playing! I am not sure on this one.

The scientits however cannot tell us what makes a Stradavarius sound so good - and no one has a bad one to compare it too!

:-)