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Worst wolf note ever?!?Instruments: Wolf on open A. Beat that!From Casey Jefferson As stated, one of my student has got a violin that the open A is right on a wolf note. It's impossible to tune correctly to the piano, though never tried on a tuner but I doubt it works as the note is fluctuating. It's a cheapo factory made $60 violin, but even they're cheap they shouldn't have a wolf note on the most important note. Anything that can be changed? I didn't quite notice it until I install a fine tuner on my student's violin. I could get rid of the tuner pretty easily, but I didn't pay much attention before installing the fine tuners. Can afterlength affect or provoke wolf notes? Anyway I think it can be fixed as easy as removing the fine tuner, but my students hasn't learn how to tune the pegs yet so I thought fine tuner can help quite a lot. It's such a weird experience to play on a violin that the wolf is getting in the way when tuning...
From Robert Spear
Posted on October 27, 2009 at 11:00 PM The open string is a very bad place to have a wolf! A soundpost adjustment can help. Even better might be a new, slightly taller post. I've had some success in diminishing or eliminating the wolf by this appraoch. If it is a new instrument, it might happen that the wolf will disappear or move on its own during the first year or so of playing. From Michael Darnton
Posted on October 27, 2009 at 11:08 PM If you notice a throbbing sound when you pluck the A string, try moving the bridge north or south, until you find a place where the throbbing is minimized or goes away. IF you can accomplish this, it will probably help the problem. From Casey Jefferson
Posted on November 2, 2009 at 09:50 AM Many thanks to both of you! Robert - The instrument is new, well as I said, it's a VSO than a carefully made violin, so there might be some awful carving under the decent looking appearance. I took off all the fine tuners except E string, and it helps the problem (taking off just the A doesn't help much, but the problem seems to diminished a little), it's the way it was anyway. Michael - I tried moving the bridge by loosening all the strings a little, and the bridge doesn't seems to adhere to the varnish whatsoever so moving is easy. Doesn't seems to help, though I only move within 2mm back or forth. As mentioned above, taking away the 3 tuners seems to solve the problem, I think it's either the mass on tailpiece thingy, or string afterlength. Nevertheless I'll leave it the way it is for now... From Raphael Klayman
Posted on November 2, 2009 at 02:29 PM A violin will most typically have a wolf on the G string on the C or C# above middle C. Oddly enough, those same notes will often sound particularly good on the D or A strings. But I've occasionally had a better than VSO with a wolf on the open A - a most annoying place for such a beastie to start howling! Have you tried a wolf-eliminator? This is a small metal tube that you put the string through. You place it behind the bridge. There is a simple screw mechanism lets you tighten or loosen it as you experiment putting it closer to the bridge or to the tailpiece. What I've also tried is using a regular mute such as the "Tourte", and placing it very close to (but still behind) the bridge. Then, there's always wolf bain! ;-) |
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