MI Pro

Formed in 1993 by Stephen Jocelyn, a professional cellist, The Sound Post was set up as a company with a very clear aim in mind: to revolutionise the standard of student violins, so that beginners would no longer have to struggle on poorly made, impossible to play instruments.

“If you ordered a student violin then, it was barely playable, and being a professional cellist himself he thought it was about time something was done,” says Sound Post’s operations director Jan Williams. “He started looking at China and formed a strategic alliance with the company we are still dealing with now. He was always very proud of how the instrument market changed, and he felt he had a part to play in that.”

Jocelyn unfortunately passed away on his company’s tenth anniversary, but the operation he left behind has gone from strength to strength. “The student violins on the market now are much better than they were,” continues Williams. “As part of that process Stephen branded a range of bowed string instruments with the Primavera brand, which is our key line. It remains our main brand, but we have expanded our range now, so that we don’t simply provide for students, but also intermediate all the way up to professional standard.”

New additions to the Sound Post’s catalogues include the Heritage range, a line of instruments based on the work of the great Italian luthiers including the likes of Stradivari, which have proved immensely successful.

Careful to stay within its remit as a bowed strings specialist, The Sound Post has consistently played to its strengths, ensuring that its knowledge base was fully utilised but never stretched to encompass areas of the MI market which are unfamiliar.

“We have specifically stayed within the bowed string instrument family, as that is where our expertise is and we don’t want to dilute that,” adds Williams. “Behind that we have Justin Wagstaff, who has spent all of his working life in the violin trade, starting in Hong Kong, he then joined Steven here just over ten years ago.

“He has a huge knowledge of the instruments, while Matthew Lipington, our managing director, has been called by others the British guru for the bowed string instrument family. He is the MD but he is very much a working MD, he’s not a golf course man. With Justin, they do all of the buying, and between the two of them they have built up a vast amount of knowledge that has helped the company no end.”

Keeping within that area of specialisation has reaped a number of benefits; a healthy, forward looking company, the Sound Post looks set to touch £1.5 million turnover this year, with a tight friendly team of nine full time staff keeping things ticking over nicely.

European expansion is also being plotted, alongside involvement with outside brands including Schertler and Ted Brewer violins. “We’re expanding into Europe now, but not in huge strides, nice and slowly,” says Williams. “We want to get it right first time. We have also expanded our range into fittings for instruments, and just recently we have been approached by Shertler in Switzerland, who have asked us to look after some of their products – amplifiers, pickups, and so on, specifically for stringed instruments.

“We’ve taken our first stock from them, and in the latest newsletter to our customers announced it. We’re also now doing a range of electric violins, the Ted Brewer Vivo range. He found it was growing so quickly that he needed someone to take it over.”

With healthy expansions in both location and product ranges, the future certainly looks bright for The Sound Post as it enters its 15th year. “After Steven died, the most important thing was consolidation,” concludes Williams.

“We achieved that, and have been growing at a rate of about ten per cent per year. We want to maintain our current customers and gain more market share, and that will mean beating off the competition with good quality goods, good service and good prices, as well as expanding geographically into Europe and always keeping an eye on our product range to make sure we’re providing what the customers want.”