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Found 16 results
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I just got a new bridge for my Montagnana cello yesterday and I'm finding out that the height between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge is 7.5mm at the A string and 10mm at the C string. I have Jargar medium gauge strings on the A and D and Spirocore, tungsten wound (also medium gauge) on the G and C. Aside from the string height, the my cello sounds much more beautiful with the new bridge and the only problem is the facility to play it. Should I bring it back to the guy who worked on my cello or just learn to live with the high strings?
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Good morning. Some time ago I had an old German copy Stradivari violin, which is well made, but all its accessories (pegs, fingerboard, tailpiece) were plastic and of poor quality, in addition to having a poorly adjusted sound post and a poorly made bridge. The sound of the violin was very loud and strident, like an old radio and in my orchestra it was the violin that stood out the most, to the point that my joking companions called it "il cannone". This Christmas an old luthier friend who lives more than 1000km away came to town to spend Christmas with his family and I immediately asked him to adjust my violin. As I mentioned earlier, the violin has a strong, deep sound, but with some small parasitic vibrations that caused it to sound like an old radio blaring, and I blamed this on poor quality accessories and poor sound post setup. and the bridge. He added ebony parts to the pegs, chin rest, tailpiece and fingerboard, since the ones that the instrument had were not original, they were made of poor quality wood painted black, added shortly before I acquired the instrument. The pegs were also painted and poorly adjusted, the tailpiece was plastic. He added an ebony fingerboard that he recycled from a cello fingerboard, ebony pegs set to perfection, a bridge that fully fits the top of the violin, and an ebony tailpiece. When I saw the instrument I was surprised, especially by the fingerboard, which had a tiny and old flame that matches the flame of the violin. When you finally play the instrument notice the change in sound. It still sounded loud, but it no longer had those annoying parasitic vibrations, instead it now sounded round and warm, but the A string did have a decrease in its sound, being very muted compared to the rest of the strings, as if there was something that prevented it from vibrating freely. I talked to my friend and he told me that it could be the position of the sound post, that he hoped to do that job with me so that I could tell him which place seemed best to me, but he couldn't do it because he traveled back He went ahead to his house, for which he gave me the violin with the sound post without my being able to play it before. He added some new pirastro tonic strings, which are nylon wound. Before that he had high tension all metal strings. I don't know what this decrease in sound could be due to, specifically of the A string. I think it may be the excess of ebony parts prevents the violin from vibrating freely, a sound post configuration that does not enhance the A string, the new low-tension nylon strings that do not fully vibrate the instrument or... all of the above together. What do you think?
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Hi colleagues, after publishing the article about strings care and cleaning a few days ago, we have got plenty of e-mails from our customers. They refer we have forgotten to mention cleaning strings by a cork. They were allegedly advised such method on Maestronet. I have to admit we have not included this method, since I did not suppose it could be so popular. In fact, this turned to be the least effective and most string damaging method ever, unfortunately. We will publish more details soon.
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I can’t find a chart that shows this yellow and brown string. Based upon thickness for being a C string, I believe it is tungsten. Does anyone have an idea?
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Recently I went to my luthier to complain about my cello not resonating properly. He suggested installing a shorter tailpiece so as to "tune" the after-length. I was surprised at what a profound difference this made, but it made me wonder why it took so long to discover, and what is the scientific basis underlying it. Also, if this works for cello, why do we never see other string instruments set up like this? When I looked closely, the majority of the cellists in my orchestra have plastic-type tailpieces which provide a longish afterlength, but all the other string instruments just have the traditional wood tailpiece. Thanks in advance for satisfying my curiosity.
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I've recently seen a bow with a very interesting lapping. There was no leather thumb grip (french style?), and the lapping looked like it was made out of a silver lapped "a" string with a silk thread running thoughout. I would have never noticed if it hadn't started coming off at the end. Has anyone else seen this type of lapping? It seemed fairly innovative and i may try to replicate it.
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What habits do players have when it comes to the selection of strings for their instrument?
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Hi everybody I've been playing around with luthiery for a couple of years. Nothing big, just restored a couple of violins, rehaired some bows, done some setups and is just about to be done with my very first instrument built from scratch. It's just an electric guitar, but it's a nice one and it's a start. Now here's the thing: I'm a cellist. I can play a lot of strings, but I want to have an instrument that I've worked on that I can play a little more seriously than violins and guitars, partly so I can see if the things I do actually feels right if you're a more experienced player. I found an old cello on ebay that, sadly, has been sanded down. Even though it's a shame, it's a great opportunity for me to sget into working on cellos, have an instrument to play that I've been working on and also carry out a dream I've had about getting a stained black cello, not just black paint or lacquer. All of that I can finally do without ruining a valuable instrument. I don't expect much from it tonally, (it doesn't seem to me like it's overly well built) but of course I can hope. That was a lot of background... My actual question is: Would it be possible to convert a normal cello into a five string one (I'm thinking low F rather than high E)? I realize it's a big and risky procedure, but I wanted to ask some more experienced builders what it would take. The idea came to me a couple of hours ago, so I haven't thought it all through yet, but here are my thoughts so far: 1 - Will the neck be able to take the pressure? 2 - Will I be able to make the fingerboard wide enough by just "fanning" it out a little from the neck rather than getting it square? 3 - I expect the tone of the cello to be changed, but would it necessarily be to the worse? I'm thinking that the bass bar is positioned for a four string bridge and would sound worse with a wider bridge? Now this is just pure guesswork, I haven't looked much into the construction's affect on tone even though I find it really interesting. 4 - If I plug the pegholes and drill new ones, would the pegbox then be strong enough to support an extra string? 5 - I'm used to four string cellos of course. I expect there to be a very different arch on the strings and a smaller spacing. How should I make that arch for best playability and does anybody know how big of a difference the spacing makes? I hope somebody has the patience and experience to help me out here. Please tell me if I've forgotten something. Have a great day :-) Tobias
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Hello - I have recently had 2 strings in a row start to unravel, weaken, and eventually "crack" in half where they go over the nut. No, I do not have a sharp spot on the nut... I obsessively felt and looked for anything sharp. This also is a violin that I had some nut work done on a few years ago and I have never had this problem before. I changed strings, and it just randomly started happening out of the blue. After the first string broke, I lubricated the replacement string and nut with soft 0.9 lead pencil and the same thing is happening. It is a Pirastro Evah Pirazzi A. Still sounds fine, but with tuning and playing I worry it will need replacement in a few weeks like the last string, and I am afraid of it randomly breaking during a performance. Did I just get a bad batch of strings? Something randomly change with my nut? Or another issue I need to look into? Hoping this is something I can fix myself and be my first "violin repair" haha!
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I ordered a new Dominant silver D string online. The thread at the end which inserts into the tailpiece was all bunchy and weird, and it looked like the string was sort of misshapen there, as well. I'm thinking this is a used string they sent me? Or do they sometimes just come with bunchy thread?
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I notice here http://orpheon.org/OldSite/Bildmaterial/WienStege.jpg (and have seen it on modern instruments too) that string spacing on the bridge is not always the standard 11.5mm. D and A are sometimes closer. True? If so why? Thanks folks.
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Hello everyone, This is my first post here. I'm asking around to see what the community thinks about an idea I have. I'm making strings that have a unique piezoelectric winding in them, which means that the string can sense its own vibration and convert it to an electrical signal. These strings could replace conventional pickup systems and possibly produce a sound that is more 'acoustic' than current technology can create. What do you think of this idea? Would you buy a set and use them? One opinion I have noted is that a lot of players may think that a novel technology such as this could not hope to compete with the traditional acoustic sound, or may think that current strings and pickup systems do the job just fine. With this in mind they may be hesitant to invest in a set of these new strings. Thoughts? Whatever you may think of this idea, I'm eager to hear it. All of your thoughts are valuable and can only help me make a better product. Thanks in advance - I'm looking forwards to the discussion! Luke
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Complete Edit: Does viola vibrating string length correspond with viola body size? Or are the 2 different? Based on what do you choose the correct viola string length? Thank you.
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The thing is that every afternoon, as I tune my violin before playing, I must rise the A pitch. When I take the pitch with a digital tuner it's always at about 438 - 439Hz and then I rise it to 440Hz...but next day is the same again. As I changed the A string two months ago, I thought at first some stretching (past the first week) was normal but it seems now a never ending stretch! -No matter if the relative humidity rises or drops, on the 90% of the days the pitch is lower. I also thought that perhaps I could have not properly wound the string end around the peg and it could be slowly slipping but since once I've tuned the A string I must re-tune D and G I'm not sure of that. On the other hand I seldom need to re-tune E or if I have too it's very little. Right now I have fine tuners installed on the A and E, and D and G are tuned by the pegs and I usually play exercises for about 30 min a day. I keep the violin after playing inside its case on a 'suitable' place of the house, away from direct sun exposure and of sudden changes on temperature or humidity. Where I live the climate is very mild throughout the year anyway. So...is this normal or should I be worrying about neck or top sinking? or anithing else?
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I started a review site at www.ViolinStringReview.com Please help build this site up by leaving a post, or uploading a string package picture. I personally am giving away a free set of stings or your choice to a random person who leaves a review (Ending May 15th). I hope this site will become a large part of the string community in the future.
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I have decided to make a new string color ID reference guide. http://www.shawnboucke.com/string-color-id.html I need to alter some things already, but I cannot do it until I get home tonight. I plan to make the beads match the actual colors on the peg ends as well. (Ex.I believe all of Pirastro is black). I want to keep this up to date, and extremely accurate. If you have any changes that need to be made, or news ones that I have forgotten please let me know. Pictures would be amazing because I could just match hose specific colors. Thank you.
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