Quality of Sound

Your Question: I have a 1928 Bert Goodwin 4/4 violin that has a good resonance ,reasonable volume,and I should be honest and say that I am a backyard 78 year old low end country fiddler so my knowledge of violin operation is limited. I can play reasonably ok with the radio or computer fiddle or at the fiddle club but as a solo I fail badly. Regardless it's my way of loving to play fiddle I use Daddario Hellicore heavy strings with pirastro gold E. Is that a good choice for resonance and quality sound? Or do you suggest I get live advice by a local luthier. A.J

My Answer: Dear A.J.,
There is no perfect string for all instruments. The combination that you are using is rather unusual. If you are happy with the sound then I'd suggest staying with the string combination that you are using.

My experience with the Helicore strings is that they do wear out quickly and if you don't have four fine tuners they can be difficult to tune. In general I'm not a big fan of gold plated E strings unless the violin has a harsh sounding E that you want to tone down. My experience has been that the gold plated E strings are expensive and the gold plating wears off quickly. I've also noticed that they seem more prone to "whistling" than plain steel E strings.

If you want to try other strings I'd suggest Thomastik Dominant with the #129 (plain steel) E string or the Thomastik Vision strings. The Dominant strings are the standard string used by most violin shops. In our shop we usually set up an instrument with Dominants and if we want to change the sound we then use something different depending on the sound we are trying to achieve. The Vision strings are a good alternative to the Dominant because they are less expensive and settle in much quicker than Dominants. Lots of fiddle players use Thomastik strings. Pirastro also makes very good strings as well.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Sheila Graves, Violin Dealer and CEO
Simply Violin

What Causes a Wolf Tone on the Violin?

Many instruments have a wolf tone, they are notoriously bad on most cellos. You can see if an adjustment of the bridge, sound post or tail wire length can correct it. If not there are violin wolf eliminators on the market. Most wolf eliminators will dampen the sound a bit and in many cases will just move the wolf to a different pitch.

If you can manage to play "around" the wolf that would be your best bet.

FYI: 1/4 violins are famous for a wolf tone on the open E string. Now that's a bummer.

My violin has a (permanent?) cold, Help!

Is there any chance that this instrument has been re-graduated? If an instrument is carved too thin, over time it can sound really cloudy and wolfy. Do you know the history of this instrument? Perhaps you should have a different violin shop check it over.

The other things to consider are if you need new strings. Also, it could just be that the low humidity from winter makes it sound terrible. You might want to wait it out and see if it still sounds that way during the summer.

Hope this helps.