I have recently been playing on a Grancino cello with original neck, and not altered or cut down with a corpus of 78cm, and this instrument completely holds its own next to that monster.

Thank you for building such an incredible beast!

I commissioned TEX out of an interest in having an instrument to fulfill many of the lower middle instrument roles so common in the Renaissance and Baroque. Over many months of correspondence Nate was able to build an instrument that was truly tailored for me.

This instrument sounds good at any tuning pitch. Not only the viola tunings I use, but I’m able to use different tenor violin tunings with it!

I came to Nate with an enquiry about a viola much larger than it is usually seen around. He responded very well to this demanding challenge and to my unusual brief.

The result is a resonant instrument that happily unites a natural alto and tenor register; a clear and light feminine voice with a darker, masculine and pensive timbre.

I am delighted with my tenor viola which Nate made especially for me. We discussed at length both set-up and model. He fashioned it historically in the Gasparo de Salò manner.

Its sound is beautiful, warm, full of character, and with a myriad of sound colours. It is even across the instrument, the sound projects well, and even the C string is beautiful.

This violin is perfect. I am blown away. I adore the flatness of the fingerboard, so comfortable and so much nicer for baroque repertoire. I am sublimely happy.

Like a good pair of shoes, any new instrument needs to be broken in to reveal comfort and joy. It took but only a couple days to begin to flourish.

The resonance is amazing, with open strings continuing to sound long after the bow has left the string, adding great depth to string crossing passages. The dynamic range is also very impressive, with excellent projection.

Did my chance pay off? Absolutely! Nate has produced a viola which greatly outperforms its price and I cannot recommend his instruments highly enough.