mf | core Viola 15 inch

Four bars decide it.

The mf | core Viola 15 inch is the instrument for anyone working at this scale. In your hands it feels familiar: the same measurements, the same string length, the same posture. What is new is the surface under your fingers, and what happens once the bow is on the string.

What happens in those four bars

The response comes without resistance. You start the note and it is there, in pianissimo, on the C string, on a cold morning. Doing and feeling sit closer together than you are used to, and that is the point where any hesitation goes.

The C string carries with a depth that forms the foundation of viola sound. Higher up the tone stays open and colourful, and the instrument does not saturate when you really give it everything.

The viola problem

The viola is the only string instrument built too small for its own tuning. Following violin proportions it would have to measure around 53 centimetres to serve its C string acoustically. Nobody could play that.

So it is built smaller, and what is lost is accepted. Every violist knows the consequence: you work for volume that a violin gives you for nothing.

Carbon fiber shifts that compromise. A top that is stiffer at the same weight moves more air than its size suggests. That does not repeal physics, but it changes where the compromise sits.

Why 15 inch

The compact scale is the right choice if you are coming from the violin and want to settle in at once. If your hands are smaller and wide stretches otherwise become tiring. Or if you play a great deal and want to spare shoulder and back.

The usual price for that is volume. On this instrument it turns out to be lower than you expect.

What it is made of

Carbon fiber is pure carbon, drawn into filaments seven thousandths of a millimetre across. A material that was reserved for aerospace for decades. We build violins from it.

The body is made by vacuum infusion, in one piece, with no glue seam. Then comes the part you look at every day: sanded, lacquered, sanded again, lacquered again, finally polished by hand. Two full lacquer cycles, each one checked separately.

That effort is the reason the pattern shifts instead of sitting flat. Under stage lighting your instrument looks different with every change, and people will ask you about it.

Alternatively the Orchestra Finish: a wood appearance to your specification, colour, flame, one-piece or two-piece back. For anyone who wants to blend visually into a string ensemble, and for anyone who simply prefers the look.

Specification

• Wittner fine tuning pegsYou tune at the peg, precisely and without slipping. No four fine tuners on the tailpiece, no sticking in dry air.
• CITES-free composite fingerboard and chin restHypoallergenic, feels like ebony, lasts considerably longer. And no protected wood to raise questions at a border.
• Wittner tailpiece with Kevlar loopStable in tuning, light, insensitive.
• Grooves in the lower ribsSo your shoulder rest stays where you put it instead of sliding off in the middle of a movement.
• 5 year warranty on the bodyYour security. The actual service life is far longer. Carbon fiber does not fatigue, and nobody yet knows where the limit lies.

What you can choose

• Five stringsAn additional E string. The compact scale suits it particularly well, and you can play violin repertoire on the viola.
• Orchestra FinishWood appearance to your specification.
• Milo Stamm Royal bridgeHarder wood, more overtones, more brilliance.
• Anima Nova carbon sound postA fitted sound post sits where it sits. This one adjusts in length inside the instrument, to within hundredths of a millimetre. You change the tension between top and back whenever you want.

Delivery takes about two weeks, up to four with Orchestra Finish. If your configuration is in stock it ships at once. Send us a short message and we will give you the date.