Just yesterday Vanessa came home and asked if she could learn how to play the violin with her new friend from school. Of course, this sounded like a brilliant idea to me but as soon as the thought fell into place it dawned on me that I don't even know where to start looking for a suitable fiddle.
Gosh. Then I started looking up instrument shops and for other possibilities...
Should I Hire or Buy?
Hiring an instrument is often the cheaper option when first trying to find out whether or not this is a real longterm interest for little Vanessa or not.
These are some of the options that I found for instrument rentals.
When going about this there are a few things to understand and know so that the decided on instrument is in a good nick and has an encouraging sound. Starting from the top.
To assist you in understanding the full scope of the violin and its components follow this link before you carry on reading this guide.
1. See that pegs turn smoothly and that they go all the way through the hole at the end of the peg.
2. The strings should not be higher than half a millimetre at the nut (which is at the top of the fingerboard)
3. Check that the bridge is standing straight, positioned in the middle of the violin (at the centre of the f-holes) and that it is not too high. The highest string, the G, is approximately 5 millimetres and the lowest, the E, is approximately 2.5 - 3 millimetres from the fingerboard surface.
4. In the case of a stringed instrument please ensure that there are four fine tuners attached to the tailpiece.
To be continued....
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