The instrument is housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and is known as the “Alard.” It exemplifies Nicolò Amati’s masterful craftsmanship and impeccable workmanship. Apart from the modifications, it is in very good condition. During the adaptation to modern playing practices, the original neck was preserved but lengthened and reattached. In the process of reproduction, based on Nicolò Amati’s surviving original instruments, the technical and aesthetic features—such as the bass bar, fingerboard, and tailpiece—are reconstructed according to the dimensions of the period in which they were built.
Since the technology of string winding dates back to the instrument’s origins, it is possible to set it up in the early Baroque style—with a low bridge position and pure gut strings—as well as to play it in the high Baroque style with a wound G string.