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Wolf notes....please leave.

From Fiona L
Posted February 20, 2007 at 10:50 PM

How does one play best on these notes?

In your playing, try not to be "playing in" the wolf by activating it too much as it often gets worse by playing it. A big vibrato helps, but that's not always appropriate of course :)

It's very frustrating. I might take it back to the luthier and ask him about what you said. It's such a great instrument except for this!
Thanks again.

A colleague of mine told me a story once about trying out violas. He had one with a pretty bad wolf and showed it to another violist. He picked up the instrument, played it, and said 'what wolf'? The wolf was gone! My colleague took the viola and the wolf was back.

You can change a lot by experimenting with bow speed and weight on the note. What happens when you approach with a slow bow? A sharp attack? Sometimes you can find the sound that works if you look for it.

On the other hand, what you've got sounds pretty extreme. I'd be cautious about a violin where you notice the wolf on the D string. Get it adjusted - see if anything's better.

p.s. While we're talking about it, does anyone have any experience with different strings influencing the problem. Infeld reds seem to make my fiddle more 'wolfy' i.e. less clear up in that range (about 7th position, lower strings). Not sure if it's the strings or my last tonal adjustment...

From what I've read, adding a spruce patch to the top typically doesn't help. That is more often used to tame a loud note which is due to an uneven top, but it won't cure a wolf.

To see if this is indeed your problem, try tuning the violin slightly sharp, say 1/4 of a tone high (half way to G-sharp) If the wolf goes away, or changes to a different note, then you know the problem is internal resonance.

I am not a luthier, so I don't know what the solution would be. It seems to me that any kind of string or bridge muting would be a last resort, since that would kill a wider range of frequencies than you need to, making the violin less beautiful & less responsive. I would be loking for a solution that is additive, not subtractive.

If I were a luthier, and wanted to experiment on a really troublesome instrument, I might try changing the size of the violin's internal cavity. Perhaps a small amount of the neck block could be removed, without losing any structural integrity?
Or, perhaps, a piece of wood could be added, somewhere, inside, to change / breakup the resonances.

-just a thought.

You can find the note your instrument's tuned to by singing a glissando in it - your voice will seem amplified at a certain pitch - usually around C, C#, D - find that note high on the G string and you'll see where you're most likely to have a wolf.

One great trick if you've got one on the D or A string is to stop the same note in a different octave on another string - i.e. if my wolf is barking on the 'c' in third position on the D I'll put my first finger on 'c' on the G string. This pretty much removes the wolf, but it makes for some awkward fingerings sometimes.

I've also discovered that a different bow can help tremendously. Some bows amplify the wolf - others may eliminate it entirely.

One strange thing with my violin - when I put a mute on the wolf moves to 'g#'.

I was on tour last month in the Midwest - my violin didn't take kindly to the freezing cold outdoors and the dry overheated indoors and my wolf was out in full force. There is nothing more frustrating than being in the middle of the concert knowing that your wolf is getting worse and worse, and knowing that you have a big solo passage coming up that starts on that dreaded note! (Bartok 6th quartet, Burletta - big solo high on the G string starting on C - ACK!) I ended up playing it down on the D string - just couldn't live with the barking.

Sometimes avoiding it is the best solution!

Good luck & happy hunting!

Cecily

One dirt-cheap (free) thing you can try, though chances of success are small, is to move your bridge slightly out of "ideal" position. Try up & down AND slightly side-to-side. I have seen that work on some cellos, but it might have more to do with hotspots on the top than wolf notes.

Give it a try, it's quick, free, and un-doable.

I put on a new string and will see how that helps(or not!). This will really put my patience to the test...... What fun!

Thanks again.

The piece I dread playing because of this note: Shostakovich Symphony #5, 3rd movement, top part... begins with three slow (hooked = slow bow), ethereal (= not much vibrato... uh oh...) C#s. I've resigned to playing this on the A-string... :-/ hate the timbre of the high-A string for that passage, but it sure is better than the screeching, warbling, gutteral wolf sound I get when I do it on the E string.

Funny you should bring this up... I got new strings two days ago after becoming extremely frustrated with my old ones. I am friends with someone who runs the local music shop, and he gave me some strings to try out (they're a new brand) for free. Supposedly the retail for about $70 so I thought they must be pretty decent. Long story short, they were terrible, and I had wolfs everywhere on the D and G strings. My previous set of strings (D'Addario Zyex) were pretty decent and I noticed that on my violin I had no wolfs whatsoever.

Anyways, I hated the strings and purchased some Pirastro Evah Pirazzis (which so far I love). I'm back to no wolfs anywhere.

Best
Daniel

the last name is Ramirez...and he's a famous maker from the 1800s (i think) from Madrid, Spain.

I'd wait it out and see how a different humidity, some break-in to your style of tone production and all the previous advice result.

Can a wolf note ever be tamed by modifying the bass bar?

If so, what is typically the trade-off?

Can a wolf note ever be tamed by modifying the bass bar?

If so, what might be the trade-off?

It's worth a try using new strings. I use evah pirazzi and I like them.

I was just reading Damian Dlugolecki's website (maker of fine, pure-gut strings) and he has this to say about wolf notes:

"Proper (after-length) gives the optimum resonance from your violin, ... assuring consonant resonance with the playing length. Dis-intonation of these lengths is often the cause of "wolf tones."

If this is true, then it's interesting that most luthiers are not aware of it. I have never seen this mentioned in threads concerning either wolf-note or after-length. Hmmm. It may well be true, though. It sounds similar to the trick I posted earlier about moving the bridge sideways (which would actually change the after-length a tiny amount.)

You could also try simply change the longitutinal position of the bridge: Either move the feet, or just change the angle slightly. this will have a small effect on scale-length, hence intonation, but if it cures a bad wolf it would probably be a worthwhile trade-off. I find on my violin that purposely goeing 1 mm long improves the overal tone & response of the instrument significantly. I keep it there, as the change in required finger position is basically un-noticeable.

Send me a message if you want the answer to wolf notes.