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Violin Repair

Hailey Alton

No One Ever Made a Violin in Wood Shop Class

Made entirely of fine hardwoods and all-natural materials, your violin stands as a work of art before you produce your first truly artistic note. Some day soon, just before you begin your practice session in earnest, take just a moment to appreciate how much exquisite craftsmanship went into fashioning and constructing your instrument. Admire the craftsman's expertise, marveling at your violin's curves and hollows. No ordinary woodworker can make a violin. Calculate the hours of training and experience required to form and fit even the simplest among your violin's pieces. Remember your first adventures with the jigsaw when you took wood shop? Look at the "f-holes" in your violin with that memory vividly in mind. Just how long must an aspiring practice before he can trace those delicate curves without cracking the thin dry wood or leaving a slightly ragged edge? Imagine how much patience a violin maker must manifest in gluing all the pieces together with just the right symmetry. Then, think of the heartbreak you would suffer if ever you damaged your four-stringed best friend and you needed violin repair.

With care, your violin never needs repair

By the time you have owned and played your violin for just a week, you will have discovered its sensitivity to even minor changes in the weather-heat and cold, humidity and dryness, even the wind speed and barometric pressure influence your violin's tuning and tone. Legend holds that some of violin history's greatest virtuosos could predict the weather from their instruments' notes. For many years, rumors circulated, claiming Jascha Heifetz drew his bow once across the g-string each morning and then accurately reported temperature and humidity.

Given your instrument's expert construction and exceptional sensitivity, common sense dictates that you ought to care for your instrument as a blessed and sacred object. Simply for the sake of your own advancement up the sections and chairs in the orchestra, you ought to care for your instrument with the same devotion you lavish on your own delicate complexion. After all, the more you care for and love your instrument, the more it will reward you with good sound.

You have known since your very first lesson you must always keep your violin in its case, keeping it away from moisture and extreme temperatures. And you have done your best to comply with all the requirements of the best violin care.

"Oh, yeah, it's all really fun until someone gets hurt."

With proper care and loving practice, your violin can keep producing beautiful music for the next seven generations. Sometimes, though, accidents happen. As Kanga told Winnie-the-Pooh, "you're never having them until you're having them." And, when you "have one," your violin obviously needs repair-but not just any fix. Expert violin repair.

Yes, even a few dents and dings can alter your violin's sound and subvert the quality of your play. An expert violin repair person, however, easily can make them disappear and restore your instrument to perfect pitch. Similarly, bridges sometime crack or break, often giving every note a distinctively fuzzy tone. And the gears on your tuning pegs and fine-tuners sometimes get worn enough that your strings will not hold their proper pitch. Even an apprentice repair person can replace bridges, pegs, fine tuners, chin holders and most of the stuff attached to your violin; in time, you ought to learn how to perform minor repairs in the privacy and comfort of your own home. If you do elect to do your own repairs, however, make certain that you perfectly have matched your replacement parts to the originals, and seek the maker's instruction for exact instructions about how properly to complete the repair.

In more extreme cases, if you have pulled your strings too tight, you may actually warp your violin's neck. An expert woodworker can replace it, leveling the new one to its proper place, and tuning the instrument to perfection. In other cases, the top or belly of your violin may have cracked in a collision with a runaway trombone or recreant tuba. A seasoned craftsman can fix the cracks; he probably will make and fit a whole new piece. Even gaping holes in the hardwood should leave your expert violin repair person unfazed; expect him to shake his head sadly, mourning the damage, and then wait to hear, "No worries, eh. I'll fix it straight away."

You ought never to see a fatal violin accident where your violin needs repair. Under the care of an accomplished violin-maker, even a total wreck can come home sounding like a Stradivarius.

About the Author

Hailey Alton is a violin performer, music lover and teacher. For more great tips about violin repair please visit http://learntheviolinfast.com/