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Tuning Whistle/Pipe for a Tail Piece Button?
Did you or someone you know, ever have or has a violin that the tail piece button was a 420-440 'A' tuning whistle? Usualy found on student instruments. i do not know of any on profesional models.
Replies (9)
I had one on an old Scherl and Roth VSO that I used to play in the 1980's. It was my spare violin in high school. I thought it was kind of a neat idea at the time, but I'm not sure how accurate the A actually was and I rarely used it.
As I recall, they were NOT accurate at all! More like in between a 420 & 440.
though this does not direclty address the original question, there is someone in NC making pochette-model fiddles that are suitable for travel and outdoor use, though very muted. He uses the A pipe for a button which I always just viewed as a curiosity. But again, these are not professional grade instruments and he is not by trade a violin maker.
Wip-L-stix- Cute!
Yes, Scherl & Roth student violins & violas imported from Germany in the 1960's and widely distributed as rent-to-own fiddles. Generally heavy instruments, but you can more or less drop them out of a plane unscathed. All the tuners I've run across are flat, and just so fascinating to grade-schoolers that they toot away, if quietly, during lessons and rehearsals. Plus the whole idea of spraying spit into a violin.... not like a clarinet where you can dismantle and swap the heck out of it. Sue
I have a wiplstix, and the button tuner in it is surprisingly accurate. It really blows an A440, which I never expected, given my experience with 1970s and 1980s Sherl & Roth student fiddles.
I dimly recall another discussion on another forum that these tuner buttons are still available from somewhere, and that they're much better made than the student-grade ones we all remember. I actually would consider installing one on my travel/junk violin.
Conrad, do you find you enjoy playing your wiplstix? When does it come into its own so to speak - I'm wanting to get one, as I often have weekends away camp[ing with my son and his horse at competitions. There's a lot of down time, but I'd feel like a goose playing my full violin, and it often rains, and its always dusty if it doesn't. So there's no way I'd take a good violin out any way.
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April 29, 2009 at 05:46 AM ·
I remember seeing one once in Jr.higschool orchestra .. on one of the older violas ive never seen another since then..