AVOIDING INSTRUMENT CARNAGE

Luthiers often see the same basic problems when repairing instruments – and most of them could be solved by some simple care and attention from the players themselves. Korinthia Klein presents a simple guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on the experts’ territory

Violins are objects of beauty and fascination. They are also, on a more fundamental level, mechanical devices that need servicing and care. I spent years as a string player, performer and teacher before I worked in a violin repair shop. Looking back, there is much I wish that I had known so I could have better helped my students, colleagues and myself figure out what our instruments needed when they weren’t working correctly.

No one expects players to be luthiers. To do either job well, most people need to specialise. But in the same way that drivers aren’t expected to be car mechanics, most people will accept that a basic understanding of their vehicle and putting it on some kind of maintenance schedule will make driving more enjoyable and keep their cars running better. It does benefit players to understand enough about their equipment to monitor when their instruments need help. It’s also useful to understand what you can do for your instrument yourself – and what you should leave to someone else.

The first step in being able to understand your instrument and to communicate about any issues with it, is to make sure you have an accurate vocabulary. This varies a bit by region, so it doesn’t hurt to ask whatever local luthier you work with what words they use when describing certain parts or procedures, but many terms are somewhat universal. For example, all the shops I know refer to replacing the hair on a bow as a ‘rehair’, but often people new to the instrument will say they need a ‘restringing’, which can be confused by a luthier to mean a customer needs new strings on their instrument. It’s worth taking the time to learn the words you need so you can communicate clearly. Rather than resort to vague descriptions that can result in misunderstandings, take a moment to do a bit of research before you call a luthier about a repair issue. The following are some of the most common problems I’m asked to solve in my shop.

PEGS SLIPPING OR STICKING 

The majority of the time either of these problems comes up, it’s simply a matter of how the strings have been put on. One of the best things players can do for themselves is to learn how to put new strings on their instruments properly. Many players aren’t ever taught how, and often assume there’s no real trick to it. But for the majority of people who come into my shop with pegs that slip or stick, the only issue turns out to be how the strings are wound on to them.

Traditional friction pegs are tapered, which means the further they are pushed into the pegbox, the tighter they get. If your strings are wound on properly – meaning over the top of the shaft with the string tracking neatly up against the wall of the pegbox – the strings themselves should help pull the pegs more tightly into the pegbox for you. Changes in temperature and humidity can necessitate re-tracking your strings, by backing them away from the pegbox wall when humidity is high, and closer again when the weather is cold and dry.

How the strings should look when re-tracked

ALL PHOTOS KORINTHIA KLEIN

If your pegs are sticking, and it’s not the way your strings are wound, applying a compound called ‘peg dope’ can be helpful. Often inexpensive instruments are not properly treated with peg dope initially as they should be, which makes turning the pegs more difficult. Simply remove the peg from the instrument and apply peg dope to the areas that contact with the pegbox. If a peg has completely seized up due to humidity, it’s possible to wrap the head of the peg in leather and work the shaft loose with a pair of pliers. However, it can be easy to twist the head off the peg accidentally, so in most cases I would recommend you take it to a luthier.

Once players understand their pegs can be impacted by the way their strings are wound, they are better able to diagnose true problems with the pegs themselves. If your peg is slipping, and the string is wound on to it properly, then the next thing to check is the string hole in the peg itself. If that hole is too far over, to the point where it’s getting interference from the pegbox wall, the peg can’t hold. Understanding that the problem can’t be solved by shoving the peg harder into the pegbox can help you avoid frustration and possible damage to your equipment. Drilling a new string hole in a peg is an easy fix for a luthier, and something you shouldn’t have to struggle with.

Another reason for a peg to slip is that it might have worked itself so far across the pegbox that there isn’t enough usable shaft left on the peg. If the collar on a peg is essentially up against the outside of the box, there is nothing with enough thickness to keep the peg in place in the peghole.

Healthy amount of peg shaft

Adequate amount of peg shaft

Peg is about to become un-turnable

If you happen to have geared pegs in your instrument, the idea of tracking your strings up against the wall of the pegbox doesn’t apply. Those pegs are designed to stay in place, and you don’t want to risk dislodging them. With geared pegs, simply wind your string neatly in the middle of the shaft.

Any other reasons your pegs are not working correctly most likely have to do with their fit, and they need to be adjusted by a luthier with the proper tools and knowledge. If you find yourself turning to solutions like chalk for slipping pegs, you’re better off in the long run having a professional check your pegs.

THE STRINGS THEMSELVES SHOULD HELP PULL THE PEGS MORE TIGHTLY INTO THE PEGBOX FOR YOU

CHANGING STRINGS

Strings should be changed on a schedule of about once a year. Serious players may wear out their strings in a matter of weeks, and some casual players can get away with up to two years out of a decent set of strings. Anything much beyond that is self-defeating. I’ve met many people who think you only change your strings when they break, which isn’t true. It’s not uncommon for E strings on violins to break because they are so thin, but it is rather unusual to break thicker strings unless you are new to using your pegs to tune. If you are overdue for a new set of strings, treat yourself to something nice. If you need to scrimp anywhere in your maintenance budget, it shouldn’t be on strings since they are central to the sound you want to make.

A few other basic things to note about changing your strings is to do them one at a time, to lubricate your string slots, and to check that your bridge is standing straight.

The bridge is held in place by string tension, so if you take all your strings off at once, the bridge will fall, and so might the soundpost inside. Changing your strings one at a time will also prevent you from accidentally mixing up your pegs, which aren’t interchangeable.

Using a pencil to add graphite into the string slots on the bridge (above) and nut (left)

IF YOU NEED TO SCRIMP ANYWHERE IN YOUR MAINTENANCE BUDGET, IT SHOULDN’T BE ON STRINGS

Changing your strings is the perfect opportunity to rub a bit of graphite into the string slots on both the bridge and the nut. This helps the strings glide better over those surfaces, and is a simple thing players can do to improve the working of their strings.

The back of the bridge (the side facing the tailpiece) should be standing perpendicular to the top of your instrument. The top of the bridge can get pulled forward during the process of repeatedly tuning new strings up to pitch as they stretch. If possible, ask a luthier to walk you through how to check the straightness of your bridge, and show you how to stand it up when it’s leaning.

THE BOW WON’T TIGHTEN OR LOOSEN 

The average player tends to have little understanding about the workings of their bow. I certainly didn’t know much about mine before I learnt how to rehair it. Your bow is half of your instrument, not an accessory, and a good one makes a huge difference. If you’ve never paid much attention to the quality of your bow, it’s worth exploring your options.

The first thing to keep in mind is that a bow is far more likely to break under tension than when it is not, so always loosen it when not in use. The next thing that is important to know is that weather has a big impact on the length of the hair. Horsehair is longer when the air is warm and humid, and shorter when cold and dry.

Tightening and loosening a bow is accomplished by the frog sliding back and forth along the stick when you turn the screw. The length of the mortise that the frog fits into is the total range available for adjusting the length of the hair.

If your bow won’t tighten enough, never keep turning the screw in an attempt to force it to do more. There are actually two main parts to what most players call ‘the screw’. The portion that fits into the stick that screws into the eyelet attached to the frog is the actual ‘screw’, and the ‘button’ is the part you grasp. When you keep turning the screw past the point where there is any mortise left, you start pulling the button off the screw itself.

If the hair is simply too long, sometimes a luthier can shorten it. Often it makes more sense to rehair the bow.

When the hair length is not the issue, two other reasons for a bow not tightening are a failed plug and a failed knot. If the piece inside the frog called the ‘plug’ that is holding that end of the hair in place has shifted or come loose, that can cause the knot to move forward. If the knot holding the hair together itself fails, what looks at first like a bow that won’t tighten turns into hair simply falling out of the bow. Either of these problems means you need a rehair.

Occasionally when a bow won’t tighten it’s because the eyelet is stripped. This feels like the screw turning easily and uselessly when you try to use it in either direction. Often people describe this to me as the screw being stripped, but it’s actually the brass eyelet which the screw fits into that is the part that fails. In this case you’ll need a new eyelet.

When a bow won’t loosen, the hair is too short, and there is no way to go back into the bow to adjust the length the way you can sometimes do when the hair is too long. More often than not, this is related to weather, and factoring in the composition and the quality of the bow is important when deciding whether to get a rehair to fix it.

Where I live in Wisconsin, we sometimes experience shockingly cold snaps in the winter for as long as a week or two, when everyone’s bow hair shrinks up at once. It doesn’t usually make sense to replace the hair, which will then likely be too long once the polar vortex has passed. For inexpensive carbon-fibre bows in my rental programme, I tell concerned customers not to worry about the temporary extra tension since the bows should survive it and be back to normal when the weather levels out. For people with wood bows that could be vulnerable to breakage, I advise them to loosen the screw completely and remove the frog from the bow when not in use during that period.

If your bow won’t loosen and you expect to remain in the environment that made it so for an extended time, get a rehair.

TRACKING DOWN A BUZZ 

Another common issue that players can learn to troubleshoot for themselves is the cause of a buzz. People often come to me assuming that if their instrument develops a buzz, it’s a singular problem that can be quickly ‘switched off’. In reality there are many potential causes of buzzing, some of which are simple to fix, while others are not.

Questions to ask yourself when narrowing down the source of a buzz are:

• When did it start? 

• What changed? (Did you just put on new strings? Did you drop your instrument?) 

• Is the buzz happening on open strings, fingered notes, or both? 

• Is it only on certain notes? 

• Are there times when it’s worse? 

• Would you say the buzz sounds metallic or wooden? 

• Does it come and go, or is it there all the time?

The first thing to investigate if your instrument is suddenly buzzing when you play, is what you are wearing. More often than people would guess, the source of a buzz is simply a piece of jewellery, a zip or a button. We once had a woman come in who had suffered through performing for a wedding the day before, where her violin had buzzed horribly, and when she couldn’t reproduce it in the shop, we asked if she’d worn anything special for the event. It turned out she had worn new dangly earrings.

THE FIRST THING TO INVESTIGATE IF YOUR INSTRUMENT IS SUDDENLY BUZZING WHEN YOU PLAY, IS WHAT YOU ARE WEARING

The next thing to do is remove your shoulder rest and see if that makes a difference. Any parts that can come loose on a shoulder rest – such as the adjustment knobs – can create a buzz. If it persists, try removing the chinrest. If chinrests are loose, cracked or touching the tailpiece, they can buzz.

Once you’ve eliminated these basic external factors, the most common causes of buzzing are open seams, the nut, and fine tuners.

The ribs are glued to the top and back using slightly weaker glue to give the instrument a means of relieving tension under changing conditions. An open seam is the sign of something going right, not wrong, because the instrument’s other option when something needs to give is to crack. You can usually spot an open seam if you look carefully where the ribs meet the plates. Sometimes you can even hear its location if you gently knock along the top edges of the plate with your knuckles and one area has a louder, more hollow sound.

Gluing a seam is a simple fix for a luthier and is usually done by the next day, after the glue has had ample time to dry. Seams should only be repaired with cooked hide glue of the right strength for the job, and not with anything the average person would have at home.

If you only have buzzing on open strings, it’s usually the nut. The string slots become worn over time, and if the string has sawn its way down to the point that it’s now touching the board, it will buzz. The front of the string slot can also be distorted from wear and cause the string to buzz in that space. Raising the nut and adjusting string slots are easy fixes for a luthier.

A quick way to check if the nut is too low on a violin or viola is to try sliding a typical business card under one of the strings. If you can’t slide it easily all the way to the nut, it probably needs to be raised.

Sliding a business card under one of the strings to check if the nut is too low

PINPOINTING THE SOURCE OF A BUZZ CAN BE TRICKY, EVEN FOR TRAINED PROFESSIONALS

Fine tuners (and other elements of the tailpiece) are also common causes of buzzing. This is the first place to check if the buzz sounds metallic in any way. More often than not, it’s the nut holding a fine tuner in place that has come loose. This can easily fixed with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but you can damage the tailpiece if you over-tighten, so be careful if you choose to do it yourself.

Other things that can cause a buzz which you can inspect on your own are loose collars on pegs and faulty strings. For anything much beyond those possibilities you’ll need help from a luthier. Just be mindful that pinpointing the source of a buzz can be tricky, even for trained professionals, so be patient.

Violin family instruments are wonderful, but are best when they work. When players and teachers are educated about how to care for them, we are all better off. Demystifying these instruments and how they function doesn’t detract from their allure. It only makes them better.

Korinthia Klein’s new book My Violin Needs Help!: A Repair Diagnostics Guide for Players and Teachers is now available: bit.ly/3pfGws2