Maintenance

Playing the violin is like most other activities, in that you can’t fully enjoy it unless your equipment is in great shape. Most professionals that I know are fairly obsessive about their instruments. Some are certifiably insane. Part of that comes from the fact that we have carried a violin case since we were 4 or 5 years old. We become attached to our instruments, and can't bear the thought of anything happening to them. But a less sentimental reason is that the physical properties of a violin haven’t changed in 400 years. They’re still made of wood, and wood is a very temperamental material. Violins haven’t benefited much from advances in technology, like telephones or golf clubs. They’re just as fragile now as when they were first introduced. So you have to take extra special care of your violin. And sometimes you have to pamper it.

First, you have to have a good case. The violin spends more time in there than out. If you don’t want to spend a ton of money, sacrifice weight rather than safety. It may be annoying or uncomfortable to carry a heavy case, but if your other option is the case that smashes your violin the first time you bump it, it’s an easy call to make. I’ve fallen with my cases many times, and luck has been on my side. So don’t be seduced by lightweight materials alone. And make sure that the case exudes workmanship. Those little hinges, snaps and zippers don’t directly cushion your case but if they look flimsy or haphazard I guarantee the guts of the case will be as well. I’ve been happiest with cases made by Musafia. They are tremendously well-made and protective. They weigh slightly more than some other cases, but not significantly so. If your case doesn’t include a cloth or bag separating your instrument from the top of the case, buy one. Most cases include such a cloth, often in coordinating colors! This makes sure that bows and other things don’t rattle around inside the case and damage the top of your instrument. Finally, make sure that the strap is securely fastened to the case, and check the connection often. I know someone whose strap accidentally unhooked, letting the case fall to the floor. His Strad was cracked, even though it was resting inside a pricey enclosure.

Don’t touch any wood on your instrument that you don’t have to. Any time you touch wood on your violin, you deposit oils from your skin. Rosin dust sticks to those oils, and an unsightly buildup occurs. Over time, that affects the sound. So hold your instrument by the neck. And if someone hands you a violin, take it by the neck, and not by any other part. The same goes for bows. Don’t touch the wood, especially not the wood between the stick and the hair. Rosin dust is going to build up there anyway, so why help it? Hold your bow the way you hold it when you play. And never touch the hair. That’s your only contact with the string, and you need to keep it as rugged and gripping as possible. Oil will have the opposite effect.

Now that the precautions are out of the way, what do I do every day to keep my instrument in good working order?

I tighten my bow, but not too much. A good rule is that you should be able to fit a pencil (but not much more) between the stick and the hair, in the middle of the bow. In actuality, I can fit a little more than a pencil there, but a pencil-width is a good place to start. It varies with different bows and players. Then I rosin my bow before I play for the first time each day. The idea is to work the rosin dust into the hair, without coating the hair too thickly. I use short back-and-forth strokes, working from frog to tip and back down. I know people who prefer one heavy stroke down and one back up. The important thing is that you’re working the rosin into the hair. The brand isn’t terribly important in my experience. Don’t do what some people like to do with their cakes of rosin, building up deep grooves in the cake. Rotate your rosining track every day to work down the cake evenly. Otherwise, the grooves will eventually get deep enough that the stick starts rubbing against the walls, and that can scratch the wood. Also, you want your rosining surface to be as flat as possible so that all the hair is getting rosin.

One last note on rosin: don’t worry about getting “light” or “dark” versions. I’ve never found any difference, and in fact one New York bowmaker (and rosinmaker) has said, “the rosin is light when I make it. But so many people demand dark rosin, that I’d be foolish not to stock some. So I throw some dye in my light rosin.”

Next, I check the angle of the bridge. Almost without exception, when I pick up an instrument that is owned by a non-professional, the bridge is in bad shape or worse. The bridge is the main link between the strings and the top of the instrument. It must be placed precisely so that vibrations travel through it to the top, down the soundpost and to the back. It must not be warped. If it’s been a while since you thought about your bridge, or if it’s obviously warped, take your instrument in so that a luthier can assess whether your bridge can be straightened and repositioned, or whether you simply need a new bridge (around $50 for a basic fitting). Once a bridge is placed by a professional, the only maintenance you need to worry about is its angle. The back of the bridge (the side closest to the tailpiece) should be perpendicular to the top of the instrument. Because of the wedge shape of the bridge, this means that the other side of the bridge will look like it’s leaning back toward the tailpiece. The object here is to make sure that the feet of the bridge are fully in contact with the top of the instrument. If the bridge is leaning forward or back, the feet aren’t fully in contact and you lose some sound. Test your bridge by trying to fit a piece of paper under all sides of the feet. You shouldn’t be able to get the paper under any part of either foot, even the very corners.

I tune my instrument.

I then put down the instrument, and perform maintenance on myself, by stretching! Why do I take out the instrument just to put it down again and stretch? Partly routine, I suppose, but also to let the tuning adjust to the current temperature and humidity before I start playing it.

After playing, I wipe off the instrument with a soft cloth. First I give the strings a wipe, starting over the fingerboard and rubbing up toward the bridge. Wipe only in one direction, to avoid, as much as possible, working rosin into the strings. Make sure you ease up the pressure when you get near the bridge, so that you don’t deepen the grooves in the bridge caused by the pressure of the strings. Next, wipe the fingerboard under the strings. And now that whatever rosin dust that was going to fall has fallen, you can wipe the actual wood of the instrument. Never use any real pressure here! You’re just dusting, not polishing. Save that for the pros who fix your instrument. That’s right, don’t purchase or use any polish for your violin! Why risk damaging your varnish by polishing your instrument yourself? You’re just working rosin dust into the wood, and building up layers of oil. If you wipe the violin every time after you play, you won’t need to polish it anyway.

Finally, I loosen my bow and put everything back in the case.

Now for the not-so-daily maintenance.

I change my strings every month or 2 months. But then again, I average 5 hours a day of playing. Until I was 18 or so, I only changed my strings if they broke, and I did just fine. What are the benefits of changing more often? Strings get used to being stretched after a while, and they lose their edge. They start sounding flabby, they respond slower, and they lose some projection. They also start to flatten (literally, not musically) from the constant pressure of fingers against fingerboard. I start to dislike the sound of my Thomastik Infeld strings after about two months, but I know people who change every week! That’s a little expensive for me, but I guess if I got free strings I would do it. A month to 2 months seems like a good compromise to me. I would say that unless you’re a professional, change your strings every 6 months (or when they break!) and you’ll sound fine. That’s a pretty cheap maintenance solution, since a set of Dominants costs about $25!

Along the same lines, I have my bow rehaired just about as often as I change strings. Until I went to conservatory, I got my bow rehaired only when I lost about a quarter of the hair or more. Now, I break fewer hairs, so if I waited for that to happen it would probably take about 6 months. But the barbs on the hair start to wear down sooner than that. The hair gets slicker, and you lose your grip on the string. When that happens, it’s time for new hair. I recommend that unless you play many hours a day (and need optimum grip for your playing), only get a rehair when you’ve lost a significant amount, maybe 15 or 20 hairs. Or if half the hair turns black from rosin buildup! A rehair costs between $35 and $50.

I have my violin in for a checkup twice a year, usually once at the start of summer and once at the start of winter. My luthier looks for open seams and cracks, and generally makes sure everything looks as it did at the last checkup. Finally he makes sure that the soundpost and bridge are where they need to be for optimum sound. This last step is done with me playing the instrument, and is called an adjustment. Adjustment is quite an art, and an expert at setup is a valuable commodity in the string world! Improper setup of the bridge and post, even by a millimeter, can adversely affect the sound of even a great instrument. Many of my colleagues will have their violins adjusted only by this person in New York, or that person in Chicago, and will make a trip mainly for that reason. In short, the more expensive your instrument, the lower the number of people qualified to adjust it. For the amateur, a special trip usually isn’t necessary. Ask your teacher, or a professional musician, who to visit. Typically, an adjustment with no repairs will cost less than $100, and sometimes less than $50.

Taking care of your instrument should be a pleasure. Whenever you take the steps outlined in this article, you join the legions of violinists who have gone before you, from the humblest to the greatest. And when your violin is happy with you, it’s impossible not to reciprocate. Your best playing will naturally follow.