I know it's probably a beginners bowing technique issue but I'm getting fairly decent tone out of the d and a strings and the e string to about g - but if I need a g# or an a or god forbid a b - the neighbourhood cats start scratching at my back door, the deaf dog hides in the garden and my 14 year old threatens to leave home. ......
Keep at it and you'll find for your self ways to sweeten it. Things like more accuracy with the intonation, less bow pressure and maybe more speed, and try bowing a little further away from the bridge.
I'll leave the advice on technique to others, but there was a great improvement with my fiddle when I took off the old tailpiece (which had a couple of metal fine tuners on it )and fitted one with integral tuners (a Pusch). Perhaps it improved the whole resonance of the fiddle - notes fingered higher on the fretboard became much clearer - I noticed the improvement immediately. I fitted it carefully, attempting to get the afterstring length correct.
A useful tip for those who synthetic core strings and tune from the pegs. Use a tailpiece with integral tuners but remove the tuning screws on the G, D and A. This means that when the string is up to pitch the under lever of the integral tuner comes up against the underside of the tailpiece (because the adjustable tuning screw is no longer in place). This apparently improves the tone by providing a more direct vibration route from the afterstring length down through the tailpiece. Furthermore, because the E string is being controlled by an integral tuner the afterstring length on all strings is identical, unlike when you have a plain tailpiece with an add-on adjuster for the E-string.
I've applied all this to my cello and one of my fiddles, and the improvement in tone quality on both is noticeable. Without the three screws there is less weight in the overall tailpiece (the screws are a significant proportion of the weight of the tailpiece) - which is always a good thing. As someone said here recently, there are no independent variables on the fiddle - everything interacts with everything else.
Getting back to the original question, practice getting a sweet clear tone on the open E. This is essential for the Irish fiddle, and it's an open secret that too many classical violinists in amateur orchestras find it a problem. If you can get a good tone on the open string then good tone should be there higher up. If it isn't then there are a number of possibilities like too high an action which requires a lot of finger pressure on the string. This can feed back in a negative fashion into the player's bowing control. Or unwanted resonances may be coming into play. In either case a little bit of work by a luthier is required.
Awful tone on anything above g on e string
Awful tone on anything above g on e string
I know it's probably a beginners bowing technique issue but I'm getting fairly decent tone out of the d and a strings and the e string to about g - but if I need a g# or an a or god forbid a b - the neighbourhood cats start scratching at my back door, the deaf dog hides in the garden and my 14 year old threatens to leave home. ......
What am I doing wrong?
# Posted on November 23rd 2006 by FiddleFancy
Re: Awful tone on anything above g on e string
What you are doing right is acknowledging it.
Keep at it and you'll find for your self ways to sweeten it. Things like more accuracy with the intonation, less bow pressure and maybe more speed, and try bowing a little further away from the bridge.
# Posted on November 23rd 2006 by llig leahcim
Re: Awful tone on anything above g on e string
I'll leave the advice on technique to others, but there was a great improvement with my fiddle when I took off the old tailpiece (which had a couple of metal fine tuners on it )and fitted one with integral tuners (a Pusch). Perhaps it improved the whole resonance of the fiddle - notes fingered higher on the fretboard became much clearer - I noticed the improvement immediately. I fitted it carefully, attempting to get the afterstring length correct.
# Posted on November 23rd 2006 by RichardB
Re: Awful tone on anything above g on e string
A useful tip for those who synthetic core strings and tune from the pegs. Use a tailpiece with integral tuners but remove the tuning screws on the G, D and A. This means that when the string is up to pitch the under lever of the integral tuner comes up against the underside of the tailpiece (because the adjustable tuning screw is no longer in place). This apparently improves the tone by providing a more direct vibration route from the afterstring length down through the tailpiece. Furthermore, because the E string is being controlled by an integral tuner the afterstring length on all strings is identical, unlike when you have a plain tailpiece with an add-on adjuster for the E-string.
I've applied all this to my cello and one of my fiddles, and the improvement in tone quality on both is noticeable. Without the three screws there is less weight in the overall tailpiece (the screws are a significant proportion of the weight of the tailpiece) - which is always a good thing. As someone said here recently, there are no independent variables on the fiddle - everything interacts with everything else.
Getting back to the original question, practice getting a sweet clear tone on the open E. This is essential for the Irish fiddle, and it's an open secret that too many classical violinists in amateur orchestras find it a problem. If you can get a good tone on the open string then good tone should be there higher up. If it isn't then there are a number of possibilities like too high an action which requires a lot of finger pressure on the string. This can feed back in a negative fashion into the player's bowing control. Or unwanted resonances may be coming into play. In either case a little bit of work by a luthier is required.
# Posted on November 23rd 2006 by Trevor Jennings