Cleaning
Violin-family instruments must be cleaned regularly to remove finger
grease, rosin and other dirt. Before putting
the
instrument away, use a soft cloth to clean rosin from the strings and the
top of the body. Gently dust under the strings and fingerboard, and clean
the bow stick with the cloth, being careful not to touch the hair. Violin
cleaners and polishes are available from us, and they should be used regularly
to remove oils. Put a small amount of cleaner on a soft cloth, and rub the
violin. Do not use furniture polish or any solvent, such as alcohol,
on the varnished parts of the violin. It is okay, however, to clean your
strings periodically with a cloth dampened, not soaked, in alcohol. This
will remove grease and caked rosin, and will make the strings last longer
and sound better. When you do this, be very careful not to get any
alcohol on the varnish, as alcohol is an excellent varnish remover.
Heat and Humidity
Store violins and their cousins in cool places, away from direct sun, heaters, and heat ducts. If your house is very dry, or if you are taking your instrument in an airplane, to desert country, or other very dry places, use a humidifier (available from this or other violin shop), and make sure the humidifier actually has water in it. Don’t store the instrument in a damp location. Keep it out of the bathroom and away from wet spots and unheated rooms. The best place to store an instrument is a closet or cupboard in a heated room. Remember, if a particular environment is too cold, hot, damp, or dry for your own comfort, it’s not good for your instrument, either.
Loosen the Bow
Before storing the bow, loosen the hair by turning the screw. Hair that is always tight will damage the stick, and may stretch itself so that it cannot be tightened enough for playing.
COMMON PROBLEMS
Slipping or sticking pegs: Peg dope, available from the shop in two varieties – one for each of these problems – may be the simple solution. However, peg slipping or sticking may be caused by ill-fitting pegs, or peg-holes that are too big, too small, improperly aligned, or worn. If you must force the peg in hard to keep it from slipping, you are in danger of splitting the sides of the peg box. If peg dope doesn’t work, bring the instrument in for a professional look.
Strings too high or too low: This usually occurs because the bridge or nut is too high or too low, or because the string grooves in the nut are too deep. In some cases the bridge has been cut down because the instrument has a loose neck, which distorts how the strings lie. In some cases the instrument was originally built wrong. The most complete solution to this problem is to reset the neck and fit a new bridge. If the height (or “projection”) of the fingerboard is only slightly low, it can be raised by the insertion of a tapered shim of ebony or maple between the fingerboard and the neck. A bridge which is too high can always be cut down, but it must be replaced, obviously, if it is too low. Sometimes the strings feel too high because there is too much lengthwise concavity (“scoop”) in the fingerboard. In this case, we would plane and sand the fingerboard.
String height (“action”) and spacing can make an amazing difference in the “playability,” and even the tone, of an instrument, as well as in the accuracy of the player. It is not an exaggeration to say that more students have been discouraged by bad “action” than by any other characteristic of a poorly-adjusted instrument.
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