It's ok you'll get there.

That's great, did doing dulcimer help you in learning fiddle?

shootrj2003, I'm glad to hear that you were able to get the violin back in to playing condition. I like your ingenuity in finding and making tools to do the job. Keep it up and before long you'll be carving your own violin tops and back. Good work.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I've learned a lot by buying "$100 dollar instruments" on sale at $30 or so on the Shop Goodwill website and working on them.

You can't buy much of a lesson for $30.

I haven't had to try learning sound post setting yet. I don't bid on ones which are shown with the bridge out. I bought a post setting tool on eBay for less than $10.

Glad your experiment ended productively.

Wally you know I have heard that a lot but only after I learned why you dont.also Ken ,the same with the mixed up tuners,reminded me of friend years ago ,while we were still young ,who removed all the wires from his VW bug to do a tune up…

It’s an avg. $100 mass produced 3/4 ,student guitar ,known history of no rework ever done,so to my thinking,probaly very alike holes and tuners, after careful inspection,I put them back so holes were centered an they seemed right none were loose ,none were long or short looking at how they ended on the sides of the tuner box and just said a Hail Mary, even though I’m a Protestant ,it seemed to work!

I restrung all strings with low tension( not tuned) enough to keep bridge from falling and in its place even with the notches and original feet marks,then I retreived the sound post with a hook from makeup section of dollar general

(lord knows what it original use was ) but it was sharp enough to spear spruce ,then I made another tool that hooked into the end of the post like pincers on either side which it hung from like a pail handle,after i acertained the angles were correct I’m a woodworker so I’m pretty good eye for that,and after several try’s and three successes( my pail handle pincer tool would not release and kept pulling it out )so I lost patience and clipped it off after setting it again it became a sacrificial repair tool but only cost me $2.50.it is set about 3/32”behind the right foot of the bridge.

 After I was done ,I tuned it up ,I did this all at the indoor rifle range while my rifle team guys shot their weekly match,I missed my match,but as promised my granddaughter s violin is back together with new strings ,a replaced sound post and got a good clean and wax,and me,I recieved a good education in violins and how to tune them OH,I recieved two violins from our friends who I was incidently helping to move at the same time as needing to get this done! A really busy day.it doesn’t get any better than that!

I want to all for you responses and I will probaly have it checked by a local instrument luthieryou guys are great 

Wally, thanks for that link and the information. I have two friends who make violins and have a learned a little from both of them, but I leave the building and repair to them. 

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The general advice is NEVER TAKE ALL THE STRINGS OFF A FIDDLE AT THE SAME TIME. (Unless you are a luthier doing a major repair.)

String tension holds the sound post in place. You place the sound post and, carefully position it, with all strings loose. Tightening strings without a soundpost can break the face.

Before they were installed, the pegs were probably all the same. During set-up or a service, individual holes may have have been reamed and pegs smoothed with a sort-of pencil sharpener to improve fit and smooth turning.

I'd suggest looking at http://www.makingtheviolin.com/ before fiddling with fiddles. There are other useful violin sites, of course.

Actually "one string at a time" is good general advice when replacing strings on any string instrument, including dulcimers.

I hope this reply isn't too late. I would not put the strings back on until the sound post is put back in place. It is easier to reset the sound post without the pressure of the string on the bridge and top. What do you mean by "mixed up the wood tuners"? You took them out and don't know which holes they should be in? Depending on how the violin was made, by an individual or production shop, will determine how the pegs are fitted. Good luck with you project.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hello all,

I started here a while back,when I jumped into making Cigarbox guitars,not a dulcimer ,but I do like it here. My question is 2or maybe threefold. I decided to change my granddaughters violin strings,I know it’s a different animal now! I took them all off then noted a rattle inside .I know what that is and why now, and will have either fix it( the post) or go to the music shop,he’s a real good guy. I also kind of mixed up the wood tuners,how do I straighten THAT out,easy or what? Well I guess this is how we learn,it would be nice to fix it by Thursday ,can any one help me with the tuners? I’ll put the strings on and take it to the shop tomorrow,I believe I could do it but not without the tools and can’t wait for delivery so I’ll just pay the shop.besides it’s my granddaughters violin,if it was mine I’d play with it but I just want to get it fixed for her but help with the tuner mix up would be great. 

That's good to hear, feel free to share your fiddle performances here.

Thank you very much shanon! I'm already having a lot of fun with it :)

Good luck on your journey.

I believe so. Good luck on your journey.

Thanks a ton to both of you for the positive encouragement! So far I've been keeping the headstock tuner turned on while I practice scales, so I can adjust. Ive never been great at knowing if I'm in tune so this will be a big challenge for me.

I play the fiddle and feel that playing the dulcimer has helped me play it..I don't play many chords..just melody string and drones.. so having a lot of fiddle tunes in my head it seems to be easy to find the note interval on the fiddle..  just my experience..of course intonation is a bit tough but tuner helps...i find that just going for it without timidity is best..good luck and fmhave fun

Good luck on your fiddling adventure... (you already know we are Fans of Nate and all his endeavors!)

Being married to a wonderful fiddler, I know what a challenge it is to learn to fiddle and not sound like a dying cat. I second what Dusty said but would refine it say it likely takes more like three years to not sound horrible. HOWEVER!- you being NATE you might well take to fiddling like a duck to water.

Keep us posted and don't be afraid to post some early clips of your progress.  We can take it, scritchy-scratchies and all! 

Ken, I've become a bit of an instrument hoarder and I probably own more instruments than anyone could master in a lifetime, so I get what you mean. The fiddle is one that I feel more motivation for than other instruments so I finally bought myself a beginner model. I am hoping some stuff I learned on mandolin can transfer over

Nate

I took violin lessons when I was in 5th and 6th grades and then stopped when I started 7th grade. Sometimes I think it would be fun to start up again, but then I realize that I already have more instruments than I have time to play them all. Over the years I've had a few violins come through my hands and I get the itch. Cleaning out a closet the other day my discovered another violin. I didn't know it was in there. I'm not going to start playing. Really, we need to pass it on to someone who will. Maybe I'll just take it out of the case and see what shape it is in. Well, let me tighten up the bow and see how it sounds. I'm not going to play that violin. Maybe I'll just fiddle with it a little bit.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Have fun fiddling!  One nice thing about fiddling is you can be going along quite nicely and then you're not.  

Haha I like that dusty. I must be a fast learner because it only took me about 30 seconds to be bad at it

The piano is easy. Push a button and a nice, clean tone comes out.  The fiddle is tough. You have to practice for a year just to be bad at it.

Good luck!

Ive just started learning fiddle! It's the one instrument that Ive always wished I was really good at, if I could pick one. Guess it's finally time to get that ball rolling! 

Nate

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Hi. I have taken up the fiddle 9 months ago..love it.