Violinist.com - Because you can't say enough about the violin

News by E-mail

Printer-friendly version
Eileen Geriak

Time for a little nip and tuck.......

April 16, 2008 at 2:05 AM

Ok....for the past months I've been very unhappy with the sound of my E string. The A was a bit off too, but not nearly as bad as the E. I'd be playing along quite happily...running up the scale to the C....then D......then......ACK !!....open E *cringe*

It was in tune, but giving me some weird sort of harmonic or something....very weak and quite ugly....sooooo....I started using 4th finger alot more often and have been improving quite a bit there as that 4th finger got stronger from all the use it was getting. ANYTHING to keep from hitting that open E !!!

Along with THAT annoyance....was a buzzing I'd get from time to time...mostly coming from the G and D. I had NO idea what that could be and was afraid to find out.....

I finally brought the ole gent to a luthier. Turned out the nut had worn down so much that the E was practically sitting on the finger board. She did some work on the nut...the G and A needed some adjustment as well.....there were also some slight grooves worn in the finger board under the E so she addressed that as well. The fine tuners had loosened a bit and that turned out to be the buzzing I was getting.

I played a little bit there at her shop and was very pleased with what I was hearing...Rather...NOT hearing....but....I'm pretty self conscious about my playing and I don't do very well with someone standing there watching/listening to me play....lol....so when I got it home I pulled it out of the case and went to town ! Oh my, I'd forgotten how nice this violin really is ! I LOVE my luthier !! :D

I had brought along some extra chin rests I had laying around...2 of them brand new....and an old 1/2 size violin with the neck broken off...to see if she could use any of these things and perhaps give me some credit to help pay for the work. After all was said and done...she owed me $5 ! :)

From Terez Mertes
Posted on April 16, 2008 at 1:59 PM
This title is hilarious! And I very much enjoyed reading the rest, as well. I had a buzz once due to a too-low nut, as well. I was fairly new to the game at the time, so I didn't think the improvement would be such a big deal (heck, I didn't even know where the noise was coming from), but since then, it's been a JOY to be buzz-less.
From Eileen Geriak
Posted on April 16, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Lol Terez, glad you enjoyed it. I'm fairly new to the violin...just started 6 years ago, so I'm still learning about many of the "issues" that can develope with these beauts and what can cause them. I'm just glad it was easily remedied and didn't cost a whole heck of a lot to fix. The violin is about 200 years old....but very well made and the few repairs that have been done on it over the years were also very well done.

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Music Giveaway

Mark O'Connor Mark O'Connor's method books -- released this week -- teach students using many styles of American music. Enter to win a set of the books this week, on Violinist.com. Photo: Deanna Rose

Search

About Eileen

Eileen Geriak is from Ashford, Connecticut. Biography

E-mail to Eileen Geriak

RSS Subscribe in a reader

Blog Archive

2008: Dec. Apr.

2007: Dec. Aug. Apr. Feb. Jan.

2006: Oct. Sep. Aug. Jul. Jun. May Apr. Mar.