Nigel Kennedy's violin was made by Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesu" in Cremona, Italy, around 1736.

Guarneri was a monster in every way. Born in 1698, the son and grandson of violin-makers, he created some of the greatest and wildest violins the world has seen. While he was alive, people barely looked twice at them. They preferred the violins that Stradivari was making at the same time, just across the street from Guarneri. They were smooth and slick; Guarnerišs were rough and rugged, made for power and volume as well as sweetness.

Stradivari poured out hundreds of instruments, beautiful yet unvarying. No two Guarneri's are the same; each one is stamped with its own character, but their sound is always soulful, both earthy and brilliant. For years people assumed he was crazy; rumours grew that he was a drunk, who killed a friend in a bar fight and made his violins in jail when the jaileršs daughter managed to smuggle in some bits of wood. None of it was true.

Nearly one hundred years after Guarneri died a poor childless man of 46, the great Nicolo Paganini took one of his violins, christened the "Cannon", on his world tours, and stunned everyone with its thundering tone. After that, Strad was passé. Everyone wanted a Guarneri, and the demand has never stopped, although Guarneri left less that two hundred violins behind him. Now they fetch prices around the million pound mark; Paganini's is kept in the museum of his home town, Genoa, but Kennedy's is still doing what its maker would certainly have wanted; playing great music on the concert platforms of the world.