December 2010

Slipping pegs - slippery slope?

December 8, 2010 10:13

Two strings unwound themselves last night - the E and the D. A couple of days ago it was the G. Now, there's either a very active spirit about the place trying to spell something out to me using the letters G,D A an E, or... the pegs are slipping. For emotional reasons I'd like the cause to be the former but I have to admit that the latter looked more likely. Especially as last practice the G was self-flattening as I played. No wonder my intonation was all over the place!

One phone call and a short journey to the local violin repairers later and we were there to find out what could be done. A proper job would involve re-bushing but as the lady said the violin's not worth much so she'd shave the pegs and apply a little magic compound. And while I was at it, did I know that the fingerboard angle was too low meaning the bridge was cut short. The string spacing on bridge and nut are all wrong and the fiddle is destined to sound forever nasal. But apart from that everything else was OK. Apart from the bassbar, probably. Oh, and my bow is mssing a vital piece of wooden wedge at the frog end which means the hairs aren't spread sufficiently.

So, my fiddle has been fiddled with and the pegs are a lot better. I'm a little non-plussed but not surprised to hear that it's really not that good.

One wonders when presented with such a dire catalogue of failings quite how someone as cackhanded as me could even draw a recognisable tune out of her. However, the sad fact is it looks like my wallet may have to be opening very soon, unless...

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December 2010

Slipping pegs - slippery slope?

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