Your (Violin) Neck Used To Be Shorter

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
 and Martha McDermott

Have you ever experienced this phenomena?- You or an orchestra friend gets some new string that's just hit the market, or a shoulder rest, or some other doodad AND it makes that violin sound GREAT! Next thing you know, every violinist in the orchestra has one! In the early nineteenth century there were huge changes going on in the violin world. First Paganini made some changes and it made his violin sound GREAT! Then next thing you knew, EVERYONE needed those changes.

It's hard to imagine an instrument as staid as the violin going through any evolutionary changes. Most of our modern violins are so standardized that if the string length is off by just a couple of millimeters, an experienced player will notice it. But early violins were not made to such standardized measurements. And one huge change that happened in the early 1800s is that the length of neck (and thus the string length) became longer! Almost no violins made before about 1830 retain their original necks. That includes Stradivaris, Guarneris, and Amatis.

Violino Piccolo in its Original Set Up by Girolamo Amati, Cremona, 1613 at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota

Equal and Just Temperament -- They Have Nothing to Do with How Well You Behave

Written by Matt Lammers of Fein Violins

We've all been there: you've practiced your quartet part well. You know the notes and can play them. You head into rehearsal confident that the opening chords will slot beautifully into place, but are greeted instead by beat frequencies, colleagues frowning at each other, and self-depricating, frustrated remarks like, "well, I guess this'll never be in tune". So you go home and sit in front of a tuner...and it gives you a nice little beep and green light, as if to say, "congrats! You're perfect!" Alas, you know you aren't. Rather than putting your temper to the test, let's put temperament to the test.

Simply put, temperament is the spacing between the pitches in a scale; it defines the sizes of intervals. Take the most notorious temperament issue for example: the third in a major or minor chord. Let's say the third of either chord is A (this means our major and minor keys are F-Major/FM and f#-minor/f#m). If you were to play an A in an FM chord at the pitch your tuner says is correct, you would find that your A sounds sharp (see video). If you were to play that same exact tuner-tuned A in am f#m chord, it would sound flat. In either case your A, which is supposedly in tune, sounds out of tune in reality. Don't blame your colleagues, blame physics. If you haven't encountered this issue before, watch our video that demonstrates the problem:

A 440. Not So Standard.

Written by Stefan Aune of Fein Violins

Violins, Violas, and Cellos all have an A string, and every violinist, violist and cellist invests a great deal of  time and energy into keep that A string in tune and then tuning their other strings in relation to the A. Most orchestras and ensembles tune from the A pitch, which is usually used as the standard for tuning. Whether it is a line of beginners waiting for their orchestra teacher to tune their instruments, or a seasoned professional attempting to wrestle a stubborn string into tune before a concert, tuning is an (all too often aggravating) shared experience for musicians. Despite the importance placed on playing "in tune," you might be surprised to learn that "in tune" has meant a variety of things over the years, and only recently has there been anywhere near a consensus on what exactly an in tune "A" should sound like.

Sound is a vibration that travels in waves, and humans perceive these sound waves as a pitch that is measured in a unit called Hertz (Hz).  Hertz are used to measure the rate of vibration of a sound, and each of our musical notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) corresponds to a certain Hz measurement. However, there hasn't always been a general consensus on what each musical note should measure in Hz. When Bach played an "A" on his organ, that note's Hz measurement was different from the "A" that we tune the violins to in our shop. The development of pitch standardization has been the result of technological and scientific advancements as well as "pitch inflation," the gradual rise in pitch levels that results from instrumentalists attempting to achieve brighter and brighter tones.

10 Things You Can Do Today to Make Your Violin, Viola, or Cello Sound Better

Written by Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

Every string player wants to sound better. Here are 10 things you can do today (not tomorrow, not next week) to make you and your instrument sound better.

1) Practice. Hah! Bet you didn't think that was one of the 10 things. But it is. Practice the hard parts, practice with quiet concentration, put the time in and you'll get multiple dividends out.

Planetary Perfection Pegs

Written by: Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

For many students and players, tuning the violin is a major impediment to playing and playing well. Traditional pegs can slip or stick. Learning the right amount of push, pull, turning and tension is very, very hard to learn. And frustrating. And expensive when you keep breaking strings. I think that some type of mechanical tuning system is necessary for students and would ease the lives of most players. I have favored using tailpieces with fine tuners built in such as the ones made by Wittner or Bois d'Harmonie.

I just finished putting the first set of Knilling Planetary Perfection pegs into one of my A. Fein/ R. Riva violins. Some things I like about them, some things I'm not in love with, some things just seem wrong.

When Should I Change My Strings?

Written by Amy Tobin, violinist and manager of Fein Violins:

So, you've been playing on that violin, or viola, or cello of yours for awhile when you suddenly break a string. You bring it in to the shop to have it replaced and they ask you "How long ago did you change your strings?" 'Geez,' you think to yourself 'I don't think I've ever changed them.' If that's what you're thinking, then it's definitely time!

One of the most basic parts of a string instrument, the strings, tends to be the most overlooked. Most new players figure if it's not broke, don't fix it! While this may be true in a lot of other instances and situations in life, it is not true when it comes to violins, violas, and cellos.

Fine Tuners

 Written by Andy Fein, owner and luthier, Fein Violins:

An instrument in tune always sounds better than one out of tune.

Seems like a simple statement, but violin family instruments are constantly going out of tune and players are constantly re-tuning their instruments. Does it matter how you get there?

Most students start out on violins, violas or cellos with four fine tuners. They rarely touch their pegs except to change a string. With good reason - learning to tune with your pegs is very, very hard. The fine tuners have an easy to use screw mechanism that lets you tune quite easily. Almost no skill required.