Violin Making and Maintenance - Maintenance

Maintenance

With careful maintenance, a violin can last and improve for many years. A well-tended violin can outlive many generations of players, so it is wise to take a curatorial view when caring for a violin. Most importantly, if the collected rosin dust is not wiped from the varnish, and left for long enough, it will fuse with the varnish, and become impossible to remove without damage.

Cleaning the rosin off strings can make a striking difference to the sound. A common wine cork serves admirably, quietly scrubbing off the crust of rosin without damaging the winding of the string. A dry microfiber cloth is often recommended; it retains the dust well, but makes a penetrating squeaking noise. A cloth with a little rubbing alcohol is effective, if care is taken to protect the top from the slightest chance of stray droplets of alcohol touching the varnish. The use of alcohol is generally avoided, as it easily damages violin varnish in ways which may be difficult or impossible to restore.

The tuning pegs may occasionally be treated with "peg dope" when they either slip too freely, causing the string to go flat or slack, or when they stick, making tuning difficult. Some players and luthiers use a small amount of ordinary chalk on pegs to cure slippage. "Peg drops" (a solution of rosin in alcohol) may occasionally be used to treat slipping pegs, but that is a temporary solution at best; quite often slipping pegs have shafts which are no longer smoothly conical, and should be refitted or replaced.

The violin will benefit from occasional checks by a technician, who will know if repairs need to be made.

Violinists generally carry replacement sets of strings with their instruments to have a spare available in case one breaks. Even before breaking, worn strings may begin to sound tired and to become "false" over time, producing an unreliable pitch. Another common problem with strings is unravelling of the metal winding. Strings may need replacement every two or three months with frequent use. The higher strings require replacement more frequently than the lower strings – fortunately higher strings cost less. The price of strings varies, and the quality of the strings strongly influences the timbre of the sound produced. A teacher can advise students how often to change strings, as it depends on how much and how seriously one plays.

For the bow, the only real maintenance is regular cleaning of the stick with a cloth, and re-hairing. In the course of playing the violin, hairs are often lost from the bow, making it necessary to have it rehaired periodically, which is done by professionals at roughly the cost of a new set of strings. The old horse hair is replaced with new hair. Other maintenance may include replacing the wire lapping and leather grip, or lubricating the screw. Large cracks and breakages in the bow are usually fatal; they cannot be repaired like the body of the instrument can. A bow which has warped and is no longer straight can sometimes be bent back to true or re-cambered, but this must be done with heat by a craftsman, and it is not always successful or worthwhile.

Loosening the hair when the bow is not being used helps keep the bow from becoming "sprung," or losing its camber, and the hair from becoming stretched. There are now bows available made from fiberglass or carbon composite which are less fragile.