About the Hidersine Piacenza Viola Outfit
The Hidersine Piacenza Viola is a perfect viola for stepping through the mid-level grades
“The hand-carved Piacenza instruments are designed and built with care and attention and are ideal for taking players into a more advanced musical territory, making more complex pieces and techniques achievable.”
Key Features:
Your Hidersine Piacenza viola is supplied as an outfit, which is to say it is complete with what you need to get started. The Violin is supplied in an oblong, shockproof case with internal accessory compartments and an outer music pocket.
Most importantly, your Piacenza outfit includes a Half-Mounted Brazilwood bow, without which no sound is possible. Just tighten the hair, apply a little of the included Hidersine rosin, and the bow is ready to play… as you will be too.
Looks and sounds more beautiful throughout its life:
Hidersine Piacenza instruments feature a hand-carved solid spruce top – or sound-table. This is important because your instrument’s primary voice is formed by this sound-table, and therefore the top can resonate as a single, coherent structure and sound great as a result. Plus, as the wood ages and the solid tonewood top gradually relaxes at a cellular level into its natural rest state, it will resonate even more naturally, and the sound will improve further.
Hidersine Piacenza instruments not only have a solid top, but they also have a stunning solid, flamed Maple ribs and backs too. These highly figured, solid tonewood sections further enhance the instrument’s natural tone. The top produces the instrument’s primary voice, and the back and sides add the character.
(The term ‘Flamed’ refers to the figuring of the Maple grain, which looks like flames striking across the wood. Maple with a natural ‘flame’ is highly prized, with the most intricate and stunning natural grain patterns demanding very high prices throughout the world of musical instruments.)
Each instrument created by skilled hands:
It’s important to understand the hand-carved element of the Piacenza’s construction. Although most musical instruments have a fair amount of human input in their building process, unsurprisingly instruments created for the entry-level tend to have much higher levels of machine-made elements. While this makes the process efficient, it can take away from the individual ‘soul’ of each instrument. Each mark from the luthier’s carving tools are there for a specific reason. The amount of time taken to carve the arched tops and back of a viola is integral to their structure – lightness and strength – and the resulting tone. Luthiers have been passing their learned skill down the generations for centuries, and in the case of Hidersine Piacenza instruments, the skilled hand-carving techniques can begin to be truly appreciated.
Ebony – Feels great, plays great:
Hidersine Piacenza violas both benefit from a genuine Ebony fingerboard, pegs and chin rest. This prized hardwood has traditionally been used for hundreds of years due to its truly long-lasting properties. Unlike dark-stained or ‘ebonized’ softwoods often used on inferior instruments, genuine Ebony will not mark, pit or wear out under lengthy playing periods. This is essential in areas such as the pegs, which are under a lot of tension from the strings. The shaft of each peg needs to retain its integrity, and using Ebony is one of the best ways to ensure this. Ebony should remain structurally sound for a very long time, and it will also feel smooth on the fingers and chin, helping make the playing experience more pleasant all round.
A Premium Bow Upgrade:
The bow is one of the most important upgrades you can make to any bowed instrument setup. The upgraded bow included with your Hidersine Piacenza Violin, Viola or Cello will help you to produce an enriched tone, plus it offers a premium touch in the form of a genuine Ebony ‘Frog’.
Supplied with:
Oblong Styrofoam Case with accessory compartment and music pocket
Brazilwood, Half-mounted bow with Ebony Frog
Hidersine Rosin block
Quick Spec:
Hand-Carved, Solid Straight-grained Spruce top; Hand-Carved, Solid Flamed Maple Back, Ribs, Neck and Scroll; Ebony Fingerboard, Pegs and Chin Rest; Seasoned Maple Bridge; Light Alloy Tailpiece with Gilt Adjusters; Steel Strings.
Hidersine Piacenza Viola Configurable Options
The Hidersine Piacenza viola is available in the following sizes: 15″, 15.5″ and 16″ and we offer the following options in our outfit configurator.
Setup Options
You can choose either the factory standard setup or our Luthier setup. If you select our Luthier setup, one of our Luthiers will setup and finish your viola to the highest standard, improving the playability and tone of the viola. We discount our Luthier setup by 60% on new instruments. We can do this because all setup work is carried out ‘in house’ and we absorb some of the setup cost in our retailer’s margin.
Tuning Peg Options
The factory ebony pegs are standard viola pegs or you can upgrade to Wittner finetune geared pegs. The advantage of the geared pegs is the instrument is much easier to tune without the need to use string adjusters and the viola will stay in tune for longer without adjustment. The viola will be delivered with your choice of pegs fitted.
String Options
We will fit your choice of strings to your viola in our workshop. You can choose the factory synthetic core strings that are a no-cost option or you can upgrade to better quality strings.
Bow Options
Choose from the factory-supplied Half Mounted viola bow or upgrade to superior bow with a 10% discount.
Case Options
Choose your viola case from the Hidersine oblong viola case that is a no-cost option or upgrade to a different viola case with a 10% discount.
