Violin Forum/Message Board

[jrose]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum, and joined because I have a question about my violin. It was purchased by my brother from a junk shop for £20 in quite a bad state, but he attempted to restore it and did a fairly good job on most of it.

The violin is now in my possession, and has been for the past three years - it was the instrument I learnt to play on, and is a fairly nice violin (one piece back, believed to be ~120 years old). However, I strongly suspect that the varnish is way too thick, which has made the instrument very shrill sounding.

Is there a way to remove some of the varnish, essentially thinning it down? I have heard T-cut car polish can be used, but have no idea how. I have not done much restoration work, but am willing to give it a try to get this fiddle sounding better.

Cheers,
Joe

[FiddleDoug]

There are lots of other thing to explore before you resort to stripping varnish. I usually think of too much varnish dulling the instrument rather than making it shrill. What strings are you using? (Different strings can make a huge difference!). Some work on the bridge or sound post may also be in order.
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Doug Wall

www.wallindependent.com

[MANFIO]

Yes, don't touch the varnish, try to work with the set up and strings, take it to a good luthier.
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www.manfio.com

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[jrose]

thanks a lot for the replies - I will take it to someone who knows what he's looking at.

however, I think that the varnish is at least part of the problem - knowledgable musicians I have spoken to agree, and it is easy to see on the lower left hand back side that there is a big "puddle", where you can feel by running a hand over it that the varnish is too thick. I don't have a camera available at the moment, but when I do I'll try taking some pictures if this would help?

Cheers,
Joe

[Andres Sender]

Firstly, if there's a puddle of varnish on the back of any real size then this instrument most likely has a bunch of other problems which make it very unlikely that fussing with the varnish is going to cure anything, even if the same changes on a better instrument would result in noticeable differences (which is doubtful).

Secondly, removing just some varnish is a skilled task which is not for a beginner, and would be far more expensive than the instrument is worth to have done professionally.

Lastly, musicians are lovely creatures but I would not accept a musician's opinion on how to fix a violin for anything.

[Dave Chandler]

You might try a decent set of strings, might cure a lot of that shrillness.

I grew up playing an old German violin, probably 100+ years old, and also very shrill. Probably used the same old strings all through my early years. I put it away for 40 years, and recently took it up again. Still shrill. I bought a set of Pirastro Obligato, and could not believe what I had been missing all those years. Just like the ad says, "I just couldn't stop playing."

Maybe look at thickness of the bridge, if a bit thin, it might not be filtering out some of the higher pitch noises.

I would think too much varnish would dull the sound, not make it shrill. It probably has just what the maker wanted on the finish, no more, no less.
_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[caeman]