I repair a lot of cello cracks amongst other cello repairs , esp on student instruments. My approx to student instruments varies, as they need to be cost effective because of the instruments value. For this reason I get a lot of repairs from schools and parents alike, for which a classical repair might not be possible.
If the crack is clean, that is, not too much fracturing of the wood it is possible to do a near invisible repair, though often this is not the case, due to the nature of the finish applied to student instuments (a sprsay nitro or acrylic that often flakes).
Below is one repair that turned out quite well. Here you can see a sound post crack under the bridge, The origin if this is that is was an imported instrument never setup in, or for, Australia and the sound post was too long, the other was due to the instrument being dropped
Cello crack repair before and after
A classical repair of this instrument involves taking the top off and fitting a sound postpatch…quite expensive. The other option is to go through the top and fit cleats either side of the sound post.
Reenforcing cleats are applied to the inside of the cello to strengthen the crack area
To manage expectation here is a crack repair that was less clean, when the instrument broke it was cross grain and some small splinters were lost. Re alignment of the crack wasn’t perfect.
I’m continually amazed that almost every other week I find out about another string group in Brisbane. Ranging from professional, semi-professional, keen amateur there truly is something for everyone if they are looking to play the classics (or something more modern) as a group.
Brisbane Orchestras : The famed QYO at work
Here is a curated list of orchestras in the Brisbane area, Logan Redlands and West I could uncover doing some searches. Each offers unique musical experiences and opportunities for both audiences and musicians.
If you are looking for someone to play at your event many of these groups are performance orientated and looking for performance opportunities.
NOTE: If you group is not listed here or informaytion needs correcting contact me
Brisbanes Professional & Youth Orchestras
Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO)
Overview: Queensland’s state orchestra, renowned for its diverse programming, including classical masterpieces, film scores, and educational outreach.
Overview: A prominent string ensemble based in Brisbane, established in 1987 by string educator Elizabeth Morgan AM. Became professional in 2005. Performs without a conductor, emphasizing collaboration.
Breathing New Life Into an Old Soul: Regraduating the Violin Top and Replacing the Carved Bass Bar
Old European violins — especially those from Germany, Czechoslovakia, or France — can be full of promise. Many were mass-produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, crafted with decent tonewood but often built too thick and fitted with a carved-in bass bar.
The result? Instruments that are structurally sound, visually appealing, and full of untapped tonal potential — but often muffled, unresponsive, or overly nasal in tone. That’s where two advanced lutherie techniques can make a dramatic difference: regraduating the top plate and replacing the bass bar.
This is something I undertake sometimes do to a treasured family violin for a customer who wants to get something more from it, or I come a violin that i think would benefit from it as a viable proposition. as the process requires many hours of detailed work. A good candidate is an instrument whose top needs to come off for other work anyway.
Usually where the timber selection is of a high quality, it has proper corner block and the maple back has been well made.
What Is Regraduation?
Regraduation involves removing the violin’s top plate and carefully thinning or reshaping the internal arching and plate thickness to achieve more ideal acoustic properties.
Many older factory violins were built thick to save on time during the making process. They often tops exceeding 4mm in places which unfortunately, this dampens the natural vibrations and leads to a dull, stiff sound.
By regraduating the top to modern thickness standards (typically ~2.5mm in the bouts and ~3mm at the centre), you can unlock resonance, projection, and sensitivity that the violin has never fully expressed.
The Bass Bar: Carved vs. Fitted
In these same violins, the bass bar (which runs under the lower strings to support the top plate and guide its resonance) is often relief carved from the plate itself rather than being made as a separate fitted piece.
Carved-in bass bars:
Save time in factory production
Are often too short, too thick, or poorly shaped
Restrict top plate flexibility and tonal response
don’t have the correct cross grain angle to support sound vibration
A properly fitted bass bar, is a new piece of spruce shaped, chalk fitted and then tap-tuned by hand,. It supports the structure and also helps control and propagate the low-end frequencies of the instrument. When combined with a regraduated top, this upgrade can completely transform the tonal palette of the violin — adding projection coupled with warmth, depth, and clarity.
What’s Involved in the Process?
Regraduation and bass bar replacement is a significant procedure that should only be done by an experienced luthier. Here’s a simplified breakdown:
Top Removal The violin’s top plate is carefully unglued from the ribs, avoiding damage to purfling or corners.
Graduation Mapping The existing thickness is mapped using callipers and compared to ideal dimensions based on the arching, wood density, and desired tone.
Thinning & Reshaping The top is gradually thinned and smoothed by hand, often using a combination of planes, scrapers, and light tap-toning to monitor flexibility and response.
Carved Bass Bar Removal The old carved bass bar is removed and the area is planed flat.
New Bass Bar Fitting A new spruce bass bar is shaped to match the top’s curvature, chalk-fit for precision, and glued in place. It is then carved to a specific profile based on acoustical modelling and traditional proportions.
Final Adjustments Once the top is reinstalled, the soundpost and bridge are adjusted to suit the new plate dynamics. The violin will often “open up” more in the weeks following the work.
New bass bar and graduated top…almost finished, some cleats on a crack too
What Can This Do for Your Violin?
If you own a stiff or lifeless older violin that just never quite sings, regraduation and bass bar replacement can:
Increase volume and projection
Balance tonal colour across strings
Improve bow response and dynamic range
Enhance sustain, warmth, and articulation
Make the instrument more expressive and enjoyable to play
This is particularly worth considering for older German, French, and Bohemian violins made between 1880–1930, many of which were overbuilt but used excellent tonewoods.
When Not to Regraduate
This procedure isn’t for every violin and is regarded as a no-no on an instrument that has been properly graduated by a named maker. Regraduating is irreversible and should never be done on valuable antique instruments or finely graduated hand-made violins. It’s only reserved for:
Instruments with overly thick tops and poor tonal output
Cases where structural reinforcement is not needed
In Summary
If you’ve inherited or purchased an old European violin that looks beautiful but sounds underwhelming – reach out would love to hear from you!
With regraduation and the installation of a custom bass bar, your violin can go from stiff and quiet to rich, responsive, and full of character — ready to sing in a way it never has before.The transformation may surprise you — and your violin may finally reveal the voice it’s had hidden for decades.
ChatGPT is here so I thought I would put it through its paces and ask it to help choose rosin, without naming brands. Kinda interesting and better written than my clunky text (See Violin Rosin ) …AI is here but I am not sure of its utility for specialist information…though its sure to be all over webpages and marketing media before long. Our instruments might be stuck in the classical era..but everything else moves on.
“write a guide to choosing rosin without mentioning brands”
🎻 How to Choose Violin Rosin (Without Getting Lost in Brands)
Rosin might be small, but it makes a big difference. It’s the magic dust that helps your bow grab the strings and make sound. But with so many types out there, how do you choose the right one?
Let’s break it down.
☀️🌧 Light or Dark? Think Grip and Climate.
Light rosin is harder and less sticky. It gives you a smooth, clean tone and works best in warmer or humid climates where stickier rosins might melt or feel gummy.
Dark rosin is softer and more grippy. It gives a warmer, grittier tone, which can be great in cooler or drier climates where you need that extra grab.
If you’re unsure, think about how much grip your bow currently has. Too slippery? Go stickier. Too harsh? Try something lighter.
🎻 What Strings Are on Your Instrument?
Your string type can guide your rosin choice:
Steel-core strings work best with harder, less sticky rosin – it keeps things focused and clear.
Synthetic or gut-core strings like a softer rosin that grabs more, helping you pull a warmer tone.
Matching the bow-to-string feel is key. If it sounds glassy or thin, try a rosin with more grip. If it’s scratchy or harsh, something smoother might help.
🎼 What’s Your Playing Style?
Your sound goals and playing technique matter too:
If you want…
Try rosin that’s…
Smooth, refined sound
Harder, low-dust, less sticky
Powerful projection
Softer and grippier
Fast, agile bow strokes
Lighter with quick response
Rich, warm tone
Slightly sticky with strong grip
Whether you’re playing in a symphony, a quartet, or at home for fun – your rosin should support how you want to sound.
⚡ What’s the Feel of Your Bow Right Now?
Use your bow as a guide. Ask yourself:
Is the bow slipping or struggling to catch the string? → You may need more grip.
Is it catching too much or sounding rough? → Try something smoother.
Are you getting rosin dust everywhere? → Try a cleaner, low-dust option.
Trust your ears and your hands. They’ll let you know when the balance is off.
🤧 Got Allergies or Sensitive Skin?
Some rosins produce more dust than others. If you’re sensitive to dust or have skin reactions, look for hypoallergenic or low-dust formulas. These are often made with more refined natural ingredients and are gentler on both you and your violin.
🧪 Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
Honestly, there’s no single perfect rosin – it’s about what works for you, your instrument, and your environment.
If you’ve only ever used one kind, try something different and listen to the change in your sound. Many players find their favorite through a bit of trial and error.
🎯 Final Tips:
Don’t overdo it – too much rosin can make your sound scratchy and uneven.
Wipe your strings after playing to keep them clean and responsive.
Less is more – a few strokes on the bow is usually enough.
Sick of lugging folders of music around between rehearsals, gigs? A music tablet might be for you! Heres my experience with a tablet for sheet music
Having lots of sheet music is a challenge further compounded if you play in a few bands, it’s a lot of paper to keep organised to find, and then for a gig to reorder for your music for a set and then put it all back afterwards. This was my dilemma until I made the decision to go electronic with a tablet for all my sheet music. Now all I have to carry around is a single music tablet and a music page turner pedal for my foot.
Tablets these days can be had for a few hundred dollars and with screen sizes from 12” or so approaching that of a standard piece of paper it works pretty well for most music sheets needs, be it music scores or chords charts etc….
For myself, as someone addicted to the black dots (sheet music) its been a convenient way to carry all my music and the various software apps allow you to annotate it as well on the fly! It did take a bit of an adjustment period to get used to reading music from a “music tablet”, as there is something about the kinesthetics of flicking through physical pages (and having double pages open) that needs to be relearned to looking at a single screen. Page turning is now done with my foot and can be whole page or scoll slowly to the next page. Its a bit weird on the eyes and co-ordinating your foot to turn a page is a new skill to be put into the subconscious. Over whelmingly though I find it to be beneficial. Also a tablet on a music stand is a bit more discrete/professional than open music folder in terms of visual appeal.
There are plenty of music score Apps about, I use ‘Mobile Sheets’ but there are other like ForScore that are also quite popular.
BestMusic Tablet choices, choices
These days you can use an Android, iPad or Windows Tablet (Mobile Sheets runs on them all) depending on what you like. I suspect Android is the most popluar because of price, I am using a Windows tablet as I like the greater flexability of a full OS (USB thumb drives make sharing at rehearsal easier too). An other apps I can run on it is Musescore which takes XML files like Wikifonias collection of 600o od older songs and can transpose keys on the fly and then import into my music sheet reader
Getting the music loaded
Getting your music library and scores onto a tablet is as simple as pointing the app at a folder and asking it to load the files. For thoise you have paper copies only of you will need to scan them in with something first.. Most people I know use a cloud drive as the repositry (such as One drive, google drive, dropbox), this also makes it easy to share with other musos as well. Some attention to the naming of the files is useful to help you find them after you library grows to over a thousand songs (it happens quicker than you think). I like to put the song name followed by the type of file score or chords and then the key its in eg “Ashokan farewell score [D]”
Music formats the App can read usually include image files, PDF’s and text files – I tend to just use PDFs, though I have been known take a photo of someones sheetmusic at a rehearsal and add it as an image file to get me out of a pickle!
NOTE: If you are using chord charts and they are imported as a text file, MobileSheets can transpose the key for you as well..really cool
When loading you music you can add biographical information about the composer / publisher etc.., I tend not to do this. Another useful feature is to load the music into collections, this is quite handy if you work in several groups or genres and only want to show all you classical piece, jazz, or the pieces for your “Elmer Fudd tribute band” when your gigging with them. Its up to you!
Annotating the music
How many verses, when do I come in, who does the intro, do we cut out the bridge? are all things that are important to note on a piece of music. Apps allow annotating of highlighter (useful for find a DS al Coda in a hurry), scribbling and typing in notes. Sometimes i cut a paste in a riff/lead from one version of a song to another You can also crop the music , i find getting rid of page headers/footers and white spaces useful to make my scroll of a song much shorter with less page turns in it too.
Performing with a tablet
Most Apps allow you to create a setlist, that is from your library assemble the songs you are playing in a set into a seperate list, this way they flow seamlessly from one song to the next, there is no embarrassing droping of the folder, wind turning your pages or turning 2 pages at once !
ONe caveat like any battery related devices its sure to run flat at the most inconvenient time , so have a think about how you will remember to charge it when not in use (or bring a emergency power brick). To make the most of battery life you can adjust the brightness down (except when playing outdoors probably) and on my Windows PC I have turned the performance settings down to maximise efficiency (the App doesn’t use much resources aside from the screen)
Foot page turners can be had for around $50 (don’t buy the ones cheaper than this) and you can spend more as well. I find page forward and page back is enough for me. (My first page turner was a $10 bluetooth numeric keypad with lego brick glued onto 2 keys …but thats another story). Make sure the page turner you choose works with your OS be it Android, MacOS or WinX. You can configure the App to turn a whole page, scoll at a set rate to the next page (useful if you have a goldfish memory) or just scroll 1/2 a page at a time. Find what works for you. You can also use your finger to swipe but not so useful for violin players 😉
Copyright
Copyright laws vary from country to country and for personal and institutional use. Some places allow you if you own the sheet music to make an archival copy electronicallt and use that, for others that more of a grey area. If you have a music royalties licence for performing check with them. You also need to me mindful when sharing you drop box full of music with mates that once its out in the wild it could end up anywhere
Its seems like I get an enquiry about a Stradivarius brand violin every other week and indeed I generally have a few for sale in my workshop at anyone time.
Its seems like I get an enquiry about a Stradivarius brand violin every other week and indeed I generally have a few for sale in my workshop at anyone time. I am fortunate to have played a genuine Strad once when I was younger!
Stradivarius is probably the worlds most celebrated violin maker , with his violins commanding millions every time you see them at an auction. Thats a huge incentive for any would be art forger to have a go and label and instrument reproductions – where even a modest percentage of that is likely to yield a huge payday from an unsuspecting buyer!
However as almost every Stradivarius he made is accounted for, so whatever the label inside the violin says it is almost certainly not a Stradivarius made by Stradivarius. A genuine ’Strad’ will have a long history of provenance (buying and selling) and a certificate of authenticity from a recognised expert. It is suspected that ther are more authenticated Strads than he made, owing to the skills of reproduction makers and artists.
So what about Stradivarius Brand Violins that you see in the wild? The Stradivarius shaped violin is probably the most popular shape/style in the world today (others being Amati, Guarneri, Maggini and others), arguably if you are making a stradavarius shaped violin you can denote that on the label with ‘hand on heart’ integrity. Its recognisable and if you are a maker its a way to convince some that its a good violin too. This indeed was the common practice in the late 1800s early 1900 when violin making exploded across Europe in small workshops particularly in the German and Czech regions. So violins made in this period are today old and the labels in them look old, and if you are retrieving this from grandma’s cupboard it might be easy to confuse it with an actual Strad.
On many labels you might see something like Copie De Stradivarius, or made in Germany or made in Czech Republic etc… from amongst the more scrupulous makers. Others made have made an old style label to go in their violins and antique the instrument further, even going as far as to add fake repairs, neck grafts etc.. which can make it very difficult to reliably tell when it was made. Some have even gone so far as to buy an old book, wash the ink out of the paper and make a label that can fool carbon dating….
New Stradivarius brand Violins
Many of todays makers do reproductions of the different models of Stradivarius violns and brand them according to the particular violin copied. This extends to the shape, but also the timber selection and varnishing which varied a lot between. Here are a few of the them that I like to have a few of from a local distributor under the brand Raggetti Master Series (from the workshop of Peter Guan)
1714 Strad Soil 1714 , Lady Stretton, Lord Wilton 1742, Cremonese 1713 Stradivarius Raggetti Master Violin copies with distinctive timbers, varnishing and antiquing
Inspection of a violin by a skilled luthier can often determine more about the violin through investigating how it was made, varnishes used etc (see how much is my violin worth), some of the Stradivarius branded violins can be quite good…just be sure not to confuse them with the real thing.
If you are in the market for buying a violin, you are likely to encounter a wall of violin brands and models. Making sense of them and identifying good violins quality can be challenging
If you are in the market for buying a violin, you are likely to encounter a wall of violin brands and models. While many of them, at a student level level come from the same kind of factory in China there can be significant differences in quality that is important to unpick (See my violin buying guide here for specifics ). At higher levels you may see violins made by individual makers (rather than brands sold under maker names)
Violin Branding (and rebranding) has been going on ever since Stradivari became a household name, and it seemed like every other German farmer back a century ago starting making Strad copies (with Strad labels) as a winter side hustle (no judgement .. many are great violins!). NOTE: Almost no Australian violin brands have been trademarked, so whilst spurious branding is uncommon it does happen !
Brand, pricing and quality
The purpose of a brand, in a marketing sense is to position a product in a market such that it becomes visible, recognisable and synonomous with a certain price point and quality. Over time a product grows in recognition, popularity and hopefully associated value. The value of the brand can thus grow (or diminish) over time. A violin may carry a factory brand, distributor brand, shop brand or just a makers name (a personal brand). Pricing of any product includes its intrinsic value, add ons and its brand value as well.
Thus from amongst our retailers of speciality stores, owner operator maker studios and generalist music shops the perception of value (and actual value) are all competing for a players dollar. A brand can really help position the product err.. violin in the marketplace.
Pricing of violins varies from high end music shops through to low cost retailers. Where you, as a consumer, see or perceive a value that is higher than the price offered, a purchase is more likely.
Today, with most student and intermediate level violins being made in China the market is replete with hundreds of violin brands to choose from. The choice can be overwhelming which is the focus of this blog to untangle. Handcrafted maker instruments are something to explore later.
Value
Many other factors play into the perception of value beyond the brand of the violin:
– Influencers, like music teachers, prominent players can strongly affect purchasing decisions, along with reputation of a store that sells it. Thus there is sometimes controversially the practice of kickbacks from stores to teachers informal or formal (see Two Set Violins expose here) .
– The customer experience in a shop (are you getting value in the store – grumpy sales person versus welcoming and friendly) , knowledgable vs a work experience kid and the overall atmosphere of the store helps with sales and also develop a stores brand over time as well. The development over time of recognisable violin brands is also a draw card to get someone to the store. More than 1/2 of my enquiries are people looking for a particular brand! A good surrogate for a violin brand is the brand value of the store /maker as well.
– Add ons: Strings, rosin, a school pack all help with the purchase. Does the case have a hydrometer in it? oohh….that looks techo…it must be a really good violin 😉
– At the entry level of the market though, where the customer is often less sophisticated, price is usually the strongest determinate of a purchasing decision. It is here that some unscrupulous online stores can trade on perception that one violin is the same as another and pass off something that looks like a violin (ie made of plywood with plastic pegs to gain a sale) but does sound very good . These are colloquially referred to as a VSOs (Violin Shaped Objects) and should be avoided.
– The traditional experience. Almost all violin shops have European elements to them such as french doors, lots of timber panelling etc.. My own humble workshop, through the necessity of repairing and restoration of instruments, rather than artiface has many of these, and if I’m wearing an apron some people thing I should charge more 😉 Violin themselves often have brand names associated with Europe, famous players or classical music terms for this reason as well. Consumer behaviour says emotional engagement is a really important part of the buying (and selling) process.
Who gets to make a violin brand?
So within the vast market place of violin brands, who gets naming rights? Actually anyone in the supply chain with a glue pot and a laserprinter – it’s a completely unregulated activity.
The supply chain
For instruments coming out of China there are multiple steps in a supply chain to reach you. At this stage they are usually unbranded, coming from large factories or town networks of smaller workshops. However there are exceptions where individual workshops have cottoned onto the importance of branding in the West and sell as branded instruments in their own right.
Thus the importer, a distributor or larger violin shop usually brand the instrument once it reaches them or gets the factory to do it before they are shipped. Then it goes to a store (who might rebrand it ) and then to you!
Distributor brands
When factories sell to distributors in a local country, the distributor often attaches a brand to the instrument, and may distribute a range of different instruments of varying qualities under different brand names. It’s not uncommon to see competing distributor brands all coming from the same factory, with just with a slightly different colour or style variations. How do I know this? – sometimes a different branded violin is sent to another distributor by accident, also careful examination on the inside and of the accessories shows it to be the same.
From here distributors may choose to on-sell the instruments
As is, to only trusted retailers. Or they may sell to any retailer – depending on how tightly they want to control that brand. This is a critical step for distributor brand value as an unsetup factory instrument with lumpy fingerboard, high nut, poorly set pegs, unfitted bridge, sound post etc.. can be quite unplayable if sold as is. Many distributors wanting to control brand value thus also offer setup up services (at extra cost and the setup level varies) or may only sell unsetup instruments to competent retailers.
Releasing an unsetup branded instrument onto the open market means it may get straight into the hands of a player not quite ready to play. Over time the value of that brand then can be diminished and can make it way onto the do not buy list of a music teacher.
The supply chain thus can start to become a little more complex when stores themselves enter directly into the supply chain with more advance levels of customisation/ setup / branding or by going direct to the factory. Here the “value” of a brand can be powerfuly augmented or reduced. Some of the supply chain paths are below and I’ve label from Green, Orange, Red show the variation in quality that can result.
Figure: Supply Chain showing Factory, Distributor, Shops with brand options and different path together with likely quality
Shop brands / re-brands
A store may source instruments from one of more distributors (or even from factories direct) and may keep that distributer brand or develop their own brand(s) entirely. The advantages to developing their own brand is they can use multiple suppliers :
– to improve reliability of supply
– reduce single supplier dependancy or market power over their shop
– develop their own consumer recognisable product brand over years.
– limit price comparison with other stores.
For specialty retailers its a real conundrum wether to rebrand distributor instruments or not. If you are buying unsetup or poorly setup instruments from a supplier/distributor that everyone else has access to; you can put in all the work to market it, set it up, put better strings and bridge on it and get it playing really nice. In so doing you essentially increase the brand value for the distributor, and anyone else selling that instrument. The real downside though is if a generalist or online retailer who appears to be selling the identical instrument for less, which in the eyes of a consumer looks a bargain based on price comparison. Then over time the overall violin brand will be perceived as a mix of all the retailers in the marketplace. It’s here that a retailer may make the decision to rebrand it as their own instrument, or if there is appetite for extra work import the instruments directly (by-passing the distributor entirely) and sell completely as their own brand.
Personally relabelling factory instruments I think is a reasonable business decision, though its not everyones cup of tea. Why expend resources to develop someone else’s brand and help your competitors thrive, when you can develop your own brand for what is a superior instrument in every way…others find relabelling inappropriate though. Personally I don’t rebrand
Shop/workshop import brands
A third option, much favoured by smaller businesses/makers is to develop a relationship directly with like minded workshops in China. Here they can control not only the brand, but the development of the instrument / product itself to something that suits their market and their own position in the marketplace. They can have input into the timbers used, shapes and styles. The idea here is to make use of the lower production costs in China for the labour intensive components, and use personal expertise to customise to add value and target individual market niches.
Supplier intimacy
At high levels of shop-supplier intimacy, personally sourced timbers, custom shape, doing the finishing and plate tuning locally can really maximise the quality – cost tradeoff. In fact today many of todays European violins are adopting this method – sending European timbers to China, getting the instrument roughed out or made in the white, and then do the finishing steps in Europe. Usually this is reflected in the pricing how much is done in China and reputable suppliers are open about this selling different levels of the instrument depending on how much is sourced or done in Europe. They can also sell it as a European violin – which as the birthplace of the violin has a greater perceived brand value.
Summary
So the brand you see hanging on the wall in a shop, you now know that where it comes from is often a twisty-turney path. Apart from the VSO scavengers, the price generally reflects the playable value of what you are getting. Value being a combination of sound quality (hopefully a major component), together with the look, design, timber selection, tuning, finishing and accessories. You are also paying for the assocted brand value on top as well. This is both the brand of the violin and the shop.
As an aside I often have people come to my workshop with a more expensive violin they have bought directly from China – typically they need a lot of setup work, but can be excellent instruments for the price…but its real roll of the dice.
In general where you buy from is as strong an indication of what you are getting as the brand itself. For best sound value consider shopping
on expertise of the retailers first,
violin brand reputation second
and then on price (within you budget range).
Unfortunately price is where entry level buyers sit, and despite the best efforts of influencers (teachers) telling them what not to buy, can end up with a VSO.
If as a buyer you see something you like and how its sounds in a quality string store, or appears on a recommended list from a teacher, hunting around on the internet to buy it online can still leave you with something that needs quite a bit of work to be setup, and likely won’t sound the same either.
As a final note, the challenge for me as a newer entrant into the market is my brand awareness is lower and market power exercised by teachers to go to particular stores is a challenge, relationships of over 20 years are important and some teachers get kick backs…we all have to make a living I suppose.
Fiddler Dan undertook an MBA in a former life, when he was engaged in technology R&D / commercialisation before picking up the tuning fork again.
Geared violin pegs, like Wittner geared violin pegs, are a great addition to any instrument where you would like to tune solely from the pegs at the scroll. They adjust as finely as fine tuner but can do a greater tuning range than just fractions of a semitone, so quite useful as an all in one tuning solution. They owe their secret to tiny planatery gears inside the peg itself which allow the spindle inside the peg box to turn slower than the outside by 8x or so.
Frequently I am supplying and fitting these pegs for a range of needs
Older clients as they find are much easier to turn that conventional pegs and fine tuners alike.
They are particularly sort after for fiddlers who like to use alternate tuning for some songs and thus might need to change tunings mid session. For example instead of GDAE an ADAD tuning gives you and instant D chord with drones! )
Another reason that presents is if there is existing damage to a peg box it can form part of a repair solution that is less invasive to the instrument.
Conventional pegs hold in place by a friction fit with the peg box., the friction arises by pushing the peg in thus directing force outwards which tries to expand the hole (pegs are slightly conical in shape).
Geared pegs once fitted are no longer doing this dynamically and only pull in the direction of string tension. Thus a peg bushing, rather than new piece of timber fitted to the outside of cheek on the inside can remedy all but the most severe of peg box cracks.
Fitting of geared pegs is similar to the fitting of normal pegs, with some minor tweaks. For Queensland conditions many luthiers (and I am no exception) like to use the tiniest amount of glue to hold them in place (PVA or poly urethane depending on circumstances) this helps the pegs which are plastic sit more reliably in the peg hole for our temperature and humidity variations. Also for all but the smallest of peg boxes the turning part of the shaft needs to be aligned proximally to the string groove its feeding.
Using geared violin pegs
Using of geared pegs is pretty simple though it takes a period of adjustment by the user:
When putting the strings on some care is needed to make sure the string only goes on the turning part of the peg – which has a roughened/striped texture
The string should be placed in the hole so that its not bent close to 180 degrees (this will make sense if you try to do this) to avoid string fatigue that would shorten its life.
Its no longer necessary for the string to be wound right into the side of the peg box as the peg no longer needs this to aid it staying in place
The pegs have an 8:1 ratio, meaning it takes 8 turns to turn the peg once….so it takes a few more turns to put new string on it.
NOTE: While its no longer necessary to keep the fine adjusters on the tail piece they can be removed, however I don’t recommend doing this until after you have been using the geared pegs for at least few months. You may find for the A and E strings in particular you might still prefer to use fine adjusters, rather than bending your left hand around the peg box mid session.
So why don’t more violins come with these marvellous pegs? I guess first is the cost as the pegs (sans installation) run close to $200 a set. Secondly though they are geared and made of modern materials and many want the feel and look of traditional pegs. The look being a pretty important cultural thing associated with the instrument, mind you we are happy to use synthetic strings and tail pieces and chin/ shoulder rests so maybe their time will come?.
I’m quite often contacted by parents about renting an instrument, while its something I don’t do here are some things to think about if your wanting to rent a violin in Brisbane
1. Ask the school first If your child is in a state school (or many private schools) they often offer a first year of learning rental option. I makes good sense because when you child is just getting started you are unsure if they want to continue. After a year though its time to commit.
2. Owning does something special
Once something becomes theirs the chance of an attachment forming is there and they might even name it! Having a violin of ones own means a step up in caring for the instrument and hopefully engagement in the lessons. Its also likely to be a step up from a rental instrument!
2. Rental is messy (for me anyway)
For myself I don’t like to rent as there’s a contract, paperwork, chasing up and the chance a violin will suffer misadventure. Instead I have a churning supply of secondhand instruments from around $150+ that you can buy for not much more that school rental pricing, and I’ll take it as a trade in on the next size up when your ready. (Buy back price is for less so I can service and repair it)
