Fiddler45

From a couple years ago on Craigslist. At least they're honest...

I just got one for Christmas! Metric, standard, and fractions to within 1/64. I love it.

Shoulda jumped on this a few weeks ago when it was only $3,000....

I have broken several D'addario D strings just tuning fiddles while.setting them up. Never any other kind of strings. Now I have an old set of Prim I use to get fiddles set up as far as string height, and when it's right I then put a new set of strings on. Helicores have been horrible the last several years.

Could be he was just ignorant of the value and thought it was worth more, possibly because it was handmade. Either way, at least you didn't pay the asking price.

I found one at an antique store a few years back, only label inside said "made in nippon". Sold it for $800. I also had a bow just stamped "Nippon". I rehaired it and played it for a while; it was a decent bow well worth rehairing. Didn't sell it for near enough $$.

Bwahaha!

If my fiddle doesn't go in the passenger compartment, neither will I.

2nd. I was going to quote this same passage of Philip's post myself.

Try a bunch in person and compare. You can play 20 of the same.model.at the same price, and they can all sound different..sometimes vastly different.

Depends also on how good rhe bow is. The best bow in our house was rehaired a few years ago with what I think was around 150 hairs. It never got as powerful or focused tone as it had in the past. I rehaired it myself a few months ago and used 180 hairs which is what the norm was previously. Volume and tone quality returned.

When referring to "middle mounted", are we talking specifically about ones that the cup of.the chinrest is directly over the tailpiece, or just that the rest is seated and clamped on either side of the tailpiece on the sides of the end block, regardless of whether the cup is above or off to the bass side? Or center as opposed to one that is totally mounted to the left.of the tailpice?

Busy day as I finished dressing the board, made a nut, bridge, and post, and finished setting it up. I left the fb alone and put the bridge just a hair (1mm) north of the f notch. Scale length is ~331 mm. Plays fine and sounds better than I was hoping for as well.

Thanks to all for the responses so far!

Could you elaborate on why it would be fine for fiddle and not violin? Will it not play easily above say, 3rd position if....which scenario? I guess I don't understand exactly what your advice was to proceed. Imo, the 3mm at the nut is the biggest problem...having a potential problem fingering half position. Not worried about intonation in general with a 333mm scale...as Michael pointed out, there are no frets and I (hopefully others also) shouldn't have a problem.