A lot of noise is made about “has your violin been setup” and setup correctly? Why? because its really important! Most factory violins arrive at a music store not ready to play and thus need to be setup. Higher quality instruments the maker will usually setup though.
Setup refers to making sure the violin is ready to play, of which the most important characteristics are the string height above the fingerboard, via the bridge is at the right height and fitted correctly to the body of the instrument and also at the nut. . Checking the pegs fit and can move freely with a dab of peg paste is next. Next is that the finger board has the correct scoop and that inside the violin the sound post is properly fitted and located and the tailpiece is the right length. Its a specialist thing and string stores all have people trained that can do it…but a generic music shop may not…and an internet violin…well you won’t know till it turns up! For a secondhand instrument these might need to be revisited
Violins are unique each and every one, however for sound production and easy of playing they are incredibly standardised. If strings are too high above the fingerboard that can’t be pressed down easily and will frustrate a player and their tone production.
A poorly fitted (and located) bridge will not allow the string to vibrate correctly, nor transmit its vibrations to the body correctly.
Some quick rules of thumb if you are checking out a violin, up near the nut you should only just be able to fit a business card between the strings and fingerboard. Any higher and fingers can’t press the strings down properly, any lower and the string will buzz.
Down at the other end of the fingerboard. The player should be able to fit the tip of their pinky just under the G string, and the gap under the E string is nearly half that. A smaller hand is probably on a smaller instrument where the heights are smaller. Also I didn’t give away the “trade secret” measurements of 5.5mm under the GString on a full size violin…oops
Looking at the bridge the feet should line up with the inside notches of the f holes and if you can see daylight between the feet and body it hasn’t been fitted. Inside there is some stuff with the sound post…a whole topic in itself.
So if your Ok on the fingerboard and the bridge probably the rest is ok..if its not …go to another store.. like Fiddler Dan 😉
Side note on beginner instruments I tend to leave the finger board nut heights a shade higher, as they are fitted with steel strings that tend to wear down a nut over time – as there aren’y too many 7 years old playing Paganini’s Caprices on them they are still quite playable. I also leave the bridges a bit chunkier, it takes out the shrill squeaky tone (admittedly at the expense of some finer aspects of tone production) and the bridge is less likely to warp if left unadjusted for a longer period of time so less likely to need a repair.
