Comments | fiddle: A Question of Experience

ludditerobot in fiddle

A Question of Experience

Jun 21, 2005 08:15

Today marks my two-week anniversary in my life as a fiddle owner. I bought the cheapest fiddle Musician's Friend had to offer, and it could be just because I don't tend to play with my guitar and mandolin that close to my ear, but I'm blown away by the volume and resonance of this thing. But I know that it's a $80 instrument and people buy and sell ( Read more... )

Comments 12

hobbitblue June 21 2005, 09:09:48 UTC

Cheap instruments are fine to start on but the bow makes a big difference, if yours came with a bow I'd suggest spending money on a new one, my fiddle is a budget version and the difference in tone and playability when my fiance bought me a better bow as a gift was astounding, I'd not really considered it had that much effect.

That aside better instruments are made with better quality woods, better varnishes, higher quality control, your looking at handcrafted quality instruments where someone has devoted hours to the construction, as opposed to an assembly line type affair with the budget models.

I like the way a person can spend just a small amount on an instrument and learn the basics and get good technique without having to break the bank, and then trade up to something that makes that technique and practice really shine out.

ludditerobot June 21 2005, 09:21:10 UTC

Cheap instruments are fine to start on but the bow makes a big difference, if yours came with a bow I'd suggest spending money on a new one, my fiddle is a budget version and the difference in tone and playability when my fiance bought me a better bow as a gift was astounding, I'd not really considered it had that much effect.
I'll certainly consider that. Probably in a while, after I'm past playing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on the five notes of the D scale the video showed me. What I'm after is a description of what that difference might be.

I'm a guitarist, and my acoustic is an inexpensive Fender. I go to the shop and pull down a Martin D-28 and I know the difference. I can hear it. The instrument is lighter. The harmonics are brighter. Notes pop out more when I play. Intonation is better. I'm hoping to get a more concrete description of that difference in tone and playability when it comes to fiddle.
I like the way a person can spend just a small amount on an instrument and learn the basics and get good technique without ( ... )

zbeckaroni July 7 2005, 00:38:32 UTC

'a better instrument' is one that sounds great. the one true thing that really matters when picking out a violin, is picking one that sounds just how you like it to sound. when i bought my second violin, i went to several shops and played all of their violins that were in my price range. then, i selected the one that had the sound i loved the most. i'm really happy w/ my violin!

ludditerobot July 8 2005, 17:30:35 UTC

It's the definition of "sounds great" that I'm wondering about.

zbeckaroni July 8 2005, 18:07:21 UTC

Basically, it's whatever sounds good to you. After trying out a few violins you can start to tell which ones sound good. I know when I bought my second violin, the violinmaker said newer, louder, brash sounding violins were best for fiddle performances.

Here's a good website that shows the good and bad things you should look out for when buying a violin.
http://fritz-reuter.com/index_copy(1).htm

zbeckaroni July 8 2005, 18:09:14 UTC

Hmm and as I just read from another comment to your post, the bow does make a major difference, too :)

Thread 7

secretedremains July 8 2005, 15:02:49 UTC

Yeah, You know Darol Anger, He is a kool guy and an Excellent Fiddler, I had the Privaledge of playing with him my freshman year of High School and it was a blast, he taught my class for about a week and worked with us on improvisation fiddle and other fiddle techniques. it was good ( ... )

ludditerobot July 8 2005, 17:24:07 UTC

u play guiar right so let me ask you something, what is the differance between a cheap little $90 Yamaha acustic gutar compared with a $1000 Martin Co guitar, the Martin sounds better right

That's the thing. I can describe the difference. A switch from a $90 to $500 will buy you better fretwork, no zero fret, a better bridge (my last el-cheapo had a bad adjustable metal tone-sucker bridge), and possibly a solid wood top instead of laminate. A cheaper guitar will not have a round tone. It'll sound clipped. Highs will clang instead of ring. That's what I mean by better, but that isn't necessarily universally better. If you want to play authentic pre-war acoustic blues, then a POS spruce body guitar would be what you want. If it's a 12-string, it's ladder-braced and has to detuned to B or A or else it'll collapse upon itself. And that's what I'm hoping to find out. In concrete terms, what does "better" mean for violins ( ... )

secretedremains July 9 2005, 17:55:29 UTC

yeah, I guess better is more or less what sounds the best within ur price range as in the case with guitars. if you have a price range play as many violins as u can within that price range and go with the one that sounds the best to you and has the best playability.

as far as with bows go, the differance isn't a huge differance, but it differant bows will draw out the tone of the instrument differantly. it is just one of theose things that you have to be a little more expirienced and knowledgeable in. but I will say that a "Hex" (Hexigonal) shaped wood bow tends to sound better than the standard cilindrical ones, also the weight has of the bow has an effect on tone. other than that it is hard to explain and is something that you just need to feel out and hear for youself.