Wolf on A in a new Violin

[fernandocontra]

Hello,

I just finished my two first instruments since I move back to Spain from Newark.

The violin has a very good and powerfull tone but also a wolf in the A.....not ussual I think.

The post and bridge seem to be well fitted, good strings are on it, standard meassurements.....

Not sure what to try to solve this.

Please, I need opinnions about that.

Thanks,

Fer.

[MANFIO]

In wich string? Open A?

[fernandocontra]

yes, open A

[Oded Kishony]

First of all wolf notes will shift over time so it may eventually go away on it's own.

What you need is to have some non radiating object on the violin vibrate at ~440Hz. or an harmonic preferably an octave.

Pluck all the 'after bridge' string sections (between bridge and tailpiece) see if one of them is close to the wolf note. If it is close enough then adjust the tailgut so that the after-length is tuned to the wolf note. If that is not possible then you must add a weight to the end of one of the after-length strings to tune it to the offending frequency. I sometimes use small lead fishing weights. Or you can sandwich a piece of rubber between two small super magnets to pinch the string (again to tune it to the wolf)

Another strategy is to use a pair of small super magnets, one inside and one outside the instrument and moving them around the surface to find a spot that will kill the wolf but not destroy the overall sound. Try around the bottom block area. You can add more magnets to vary the weight. Sandwiching some rubber between the magnets also helps.

Sometimes simply moving the tailpiece closer to the bridge will dampen the wolf but can also dampen the overall sound of the fiddle.

Try a different chinrest too.

Oded Kishony

[Don Noon]

I'll go along with most of what Oded posted, but I'm not so sure about the effectiveness of a non-radiating object at a harmonic... I think it would have to be at 440 Hz to work. That would rule out the string afterlengths.

First of all, this problem is apparently the B1- mode, where the chinrest mass has some influence. A heavier chinrest will lower the frequency and amplitude, and vice versa. That would be the first thing I'd try.

Things can definitely change rapidly on a newly strung instrument, so you might want to wait a few weeks or so to see what happens. In my limited experience, wolfnotes usually calm down a bit in this timeframe.

If the problem remains intolerable, I'd try adjusting the tailgut length... not to tune string afterlengths, but to tune the resonance of the lower end of the tailpiece to the wolf note. Somewhere around 6 or 7 mm of free tailgut length is where I'd expect this to happen. It may be that your current tailgut length is making the problem worse: if the tuning is higher or lower than the wolf, the tailpiece resonance could actually make the wolf stronger.

[Janito]

The violin has a very good and powerfull tone but also a wolf in the A.....

First of all, this problem is apparently the B1- mode, where the chinrest mass has some influence. A heavier chinrest will lower the frequency and amplitude, and vice versa.

I have found large differences in the effects of chinrests that go over the tailpiece vs to the side. Also the tightness of the clamps.

I would be interested to hear what you find if you try these chinrest variations.

[lyndon]

i just had this very same problem on an antique violin, the A string up to twice as loud but only on the note A not all the notes on the string, after much fooling with the soundpost the solution came with the post fairly close to the bridge and a little tighter than usual, the wolf almost completely went away, obviously the same position might not work for you, but experimenting with post position might work. good luck

[fernandocontra]

I will play the violin for a time and see what happens then.

May be I´m lucky and the wolf goes away.

many thanks!!!

[jezzupe]

Lots of good advice, often time minor adjustments to the "percieved" sweet spot of both the bridge and post can be moved ever so slightly. When presented with this problem in the past I have found that messing with the tailgut lenght as well as just simply removing the post and re-setting it as well as moving the bridge a bit through dumb luck seems to have always solved the problem.