Some Violin Setup Basics
Dr. Czes Kul, violin maker
(this article was published in 2004 October “Soundpost”, NZ issue)
Violin (viola, cello), being (or, strictly speaking, looking) quite simple, is very delicate as well as complex instrument and therefore require a lot of steady care. Teacher, as a rule, firstly teaches pupils to handle violin and case properly. Later, along with playing the basics pupils are taught to take care on violin more widely and deeply.Being a violin maker and repairer, I faced young and not so young players and their parents quite often. Unfortunately, I also noticed that not every teacher teaches his or her pupils to take violin care properly. Although only luthier can do some essential adjustments and repairs, there are some simple basic things that player (even young), parents or teacher can perform easily.But probably the best way to explain wideness of problems occurring and infinity of solutions that are performed by inexperienced parents and/or students themselves is description of some of them. During years I have been involved in violin repair, I saw and had to ‘treat’ some badly repaired violins. The main typical among them (repairer usually undergo quite a wide variety of repairs):
- During violin tuning strings pull bridge top towards fingerboard, so bridge position must be corrected often. Not doing so causes bridge to bent. Although putting the bridge into order is quite simple, usually violin problem has been just bent bridge
- Plates (most often top plate) or fingerboard glued with white glue
- Rosin (colophony) used to fix not properly fitted pegs. Fat (oil) is sometimes used when pegs are hardly possible to turn
- Paper (cardboard, leather etc.) inserted between the string and bridge to increase distance between string and fingerboard
These are the my most memorable events as a violin repairer:
- As it is well known to every player, among the most irritating occurrences in violins are buzzes of different kinds. Sometimes even experts have to spend hours before buzz source is identified. Once a viola player, who was unhappy with a buzz from his old viola, visited me. Musicians are often confident that source of inner buzz – unglued bassbar. The player, being a handyman and thinking that just unglued bassbar is the problem, created a sophisticated technique to pour hot glue to the bass bar via f hole, but buzz remained. I managed to eliminate the buzz easily after I opened the viola. I had more trouble removing lots of glue, I must to admit … Undoubtedly, bassbar was, as usually, glued properly
- It is a story of one folk fiddler from a small town, who visited me: “I always tried to repair my violin myself. Certainly, it always was a challenge, but I was lucky enough. Once, as my violin pegs worn out, I purchased new pegs at a music shop. These were too thick, so I carefully shaved them off using my knife and a file. When pegs were of nearly good thickness, I tried to fix strings. Regretfully, it was impossible mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, I could not fix pegs, so I used rosin powder. Additionally, it was mainly impossible to fix a string on a peg…”
It is quite long story, but it can help you imagine paths of some handy, but inexperienced musicians or parents as well as consequences of such a work. As it is easy to see, timely visit to a repairer shop can save lots of money, time and worries.
Although most badly repaired violins are quite easy to put into order, some require quite a bit of time and effort. As I can see, all these ‘dilettante’ repairs can easily be avoided by proper easy to perform education of teachers and pupils.
Every repairer often hear the same question: “How setup can influence my violin?” Very good answer arrives from Internet: “Ultimately a violin’s potential of a violin can only be realized by proper setup. The violin’s setup allows the inherent quality of wood and construction to perform or prevents it from performing. In general, the better violins respond to finely honed setup more than less-expensive trade violins. A super expensive bridge and super fancy strings may well not make your violin perform any better! ?The exact setup that is optimal depends on the violin and the player”.
Another question: “Who can perform setup, probably I myself?” can be answered by a sample of a car. Car-owners, unless they are mechanics themselves, take their cars in for a service at regular intervals – it is obligatory. Certainly, violin player don’t put his or her life at risk if he or she has a badly serviced instrument, but disorderly instrument can empoison living. The best advice on instrument care is to take it once a year or so to an experienced luthier for checking over. At best it may need little attention, but if it does, the trained eye will notice any small repairs that could save a great deal of money as well as inconvenience, when problem get serious.
Often owners of musical instruments, especially seniors (professionals), decide to take care on these themselves. Only when serious problem occurs, they appeal to luthier. So, what are the things professional players, students, teachers and amateurs can do themselves and when should they invoke an expert?
Violin makers in general agree – about three quarters of repairs could be avoided by proper and regular maintenance. Additionally, I know for sure (and most of my colleagues will agree with me) – violin makers are not looking for repairs, especially restorations, so we want them to be avoided.
From the violin player’s point of view, proper maintenance is a sort of insurance – some money must be paid now to have probably benefits later. At the same time, it cannot be emphasized enough that an instrument needs expert handling and there is no substitute for developing a good relationship with a repairer who will get to know player and his or her instrument.
Again, sometimes do-it-yourself techniques are given, but please do not do anything unless you are absolutely confident technique you use is proper. It somehow can be compared with tooth treatment – who could do it himself or ask a neigbour to do it?
Lots of matters can occur to any instrument – and every repairer confronts a huge variety of different accidents. Certainly, there are no simple answers (if – then) on this way. Everything depends on so many factors – owner’s position, age, value and sound properties of an instrument? … Anyway, good repairer always has big experience as well as better tools, so it is really good idea at least to ask him for advice. One more thing – repairer with a trained eye can see more (sometimes almost invisible) problems than owner or player. Good repairer can also see (or foresee) dependencies of different processes and therefore prevent further violin deterioration. And please remember – some problems can only look simple!
When I sat to Internet and typed ‘violin care’ and ‘violin maintenance, search engine showed over sixty thousands articles. Obviously, some of them are good, some – not so good. Therefore some advice for almost any particular area (pegs, soundpost, bridge, etc) can be found. There are some books on this theme. Probably among best of these is book by Jane Dorner ‘An A to Z of Instrument Care for players of instrument family’, first published in the UK by Orpheus Publications in 1992.
Please always remember – there is no substitute for an experienced luthier services.
Final note:
Being newcomers to NZ, we again underwent the wideness of fake stuff among violin accessories. Violin bridges we bought in Auckland are very similar to original ‘Aubert’ bridges, but difference is substantial. These, most probably Asian, bridges are produced from much softer wood, so proper and long-lasting setup, especially essential for fine violins, can not be performed. So, it is wise to visit experienced as well as honest luthier for performing violin setup or get advice.