MAINTENANCE OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS AND BOWS AND COMMON PROBLEMS

Advice free of engagement is meant to give the musician more knowledge and understanding of his/her instrument and bow, in order to increase pleasure in playing and keep the instrument in good condition.

THE INSTRUMENT

Maintenance
- Wipe regularly with a dry clean cloth rosin dust of instrument.
- Clean the fingerboard with a little alcohol on a cloth. Place a clean cloth for protection over the instrument under the fingerboard.
- If necessary clean the strings with a bit of alcohol on a cloth.

Take care!
- Be careful with the f-wings (do not press).
- Use little alcohol when cleaning the fingerboard
- For thorough cleaning go to your violin maker.

Strings
- Stringing: one by one, hook well in tail piece, above ~ 7 mm. through hole in key, half a turn inwards, cross, turn outwards.
- The string itself will pull the key inwards, it cannot come off loose.

Take care!
-Strings not too long: otherwise they will get stuck between the hole and side of pegbox. If necessary cut a piece off (not too much).
- If strings often break:
Nut makes a sharp bend
Grooves in nut too narrow and/or too sharp
Fingerboard surface poor
String hole in peg too sharp
String runs across another peg (difficult to tune!)
Fine tuner has sharp edges
Grooves in bridge too deep and /or too sharp

Pegs
- Function because of friction. Fitting well is necessary. Do both contact surfaces shine all the way round? Peg paste is only useful if peg fits well. Put a little on the contact surfaces.
- String hole ~ in the middle.

Take care!
- Pegs too tight: too much string on the peg. (cut a piece of string off);
pegs are too dry. (put bit of peg paste on contact surfaces)
- Pegs too loose: pegs do not fit; peg hole too far inwards. Go to your violin maker.
string wound up wrongly (see strings)
Emergency measure: chalk on the contact surfaces.

Bridge
- Must be upright. Viola, violin or cello on your lap with the pin towards you, hold the bridge between your thumb and index fingers from above between the strings, let palms rest on the instrument (on a cello: the arms), carefully pull back.
- Strings must lie on the bridge, 1/3 string thickness in the bridge.
- Top curvature is important in connection with right arm movement.

Take care!
-Bridge keeps pulling forward: strings lie too deep in the bridge; bridge warped; bridge wrongly fitted. Go to your violin maker.
- Damage to right C edge: bridge too low and/or too round. Go to your violin maker.

Top nut
- Very important for comfort of playing. Height 1 string thickness. Strings maximum 1/2 string thickness in the nut, 1/2 string thickness above the fingerboard.
- Nut must have a 1/4 circular form so that the string can come on the nut almost without a bend, go over it and almost without a bend go off it. Every other form will lead to damage to the strings and/or additional noises.

Take care!
-Strings break: nut makes the strings kink; grooves too narrow. Go to your violin maker.

Fingerboard
- Must be slightly hollow and smooth. Edges not too sharp.

Take care!
- Strings wear quickly: grooves in fingerboard. Go to your violin maker.
- Strings make buzzing noise : fingerboard has one or more bumps. Go to your violin maker.

Fine tuner
- Only with steel strings ( E violin and A viola) and with 4 steel strings on the cello and viola necessary with 4/4 instruments. Smaller instruments usually 4 pieces.

Take care!
- Turn back regularly.
- Preferably Hill model: causes less / no damage to the belly.
- Fine tuners can cause buzzes.

THE BOW

The hairs
- The hairs must be just without tension when the nut is in its foremost position.
- The hairs must all be the same length and parallel in a flat ribbon from nut to the head.

Take care!
-Always turn the hairs loose after playing, otherwise the hairs will stretch and the bow will lose its shape.
- Never clean the hairs with alcohol.
- The hairs are too long: you cannot tighten the hairs sufficiently any more. Go to your violin maker.
- Never hit the bow in the air to get rid of extra rosin but pull you thumb across the hairs a couple of times. Rosin will blow off by itself.

The lapping
- Replace in time. Do not let a hole develop. This causes great damage to the bow.

The face
-Let broken off white point be repaired immediately to prevent damage increasing.

Rosinning the hairs
- Rosin your bow regularly a little and not suddenly a whole lot. If you play daily once or twice a week is more than enough.

New hairs
When:
- too long hairs
- hairs are of different lengths
- too few hairs
- too dirty hairs (might be washed with soap and water)
- the hairs are worn off: the scales on the hairs do not hold the rosin any more so that there is less grip on the strings.

ENERAL

The violin making profession is very difficult and specialised. Thorough training is necessary. At least an additional five years' work experience in other workshops is essential in my opinion. The greatest damage to instruments and bows occurs when inexperienced people work on instruments and bows.
Enquire in advance about:
- Training and certificates (Type and value)
- Seriousness of the violin making business ( for example Chamber of Commerce registration number. (Does not say anything about professional knowledge)
- Membership violin and bow making association
- Experience
- Reputation
- Guarantees

If in any doubt ask at a violin and bow making association for example.