Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

Fitting up a new violin the A string did not sound right .It sounded like two strings fighting each other.If it was a pair of glasses it would be out of focus . I suspected the string running over the nut. The clearance above the fingerboard was right.I had checked it with a feeler gauge.
I slackened the string and rubbed a pencil in the groove.The groove was checked with a rat tail file sloping gently down towards the pegbox . The graphite was still shiny half way towards the fingerboard side. So more filing moved the graphite away until the highest part of the nut was where the fingerboard touches the nut.
Tuning up again the A string gave one solid note without its nasty doppelganger . Edgar Russ advises us not to have the nut groove sides too tight on the string. But the string bottom should be right on the edge .