Violin Forum/Message Board

[Jack London]

I recently finished a fiddle that is balanced across the strings, except for the G note on the E string. It stands out much louder than the other notes, even a bit piercing. I have moved the post, used different posts, different strings, made new bridges, tried putting weight on the fingerboard and the tailpiece, and even tried sticking blobs of clay in various places on the surface of the fiddle, and it is pretty much the same (while there is some change when I weight the treble F upper wing.)

The top is Englemann, about 2.4 around the edges, going up to 2.7 to just under 3 in the center, post area.

Any suggestions as to how to quiet the note down, and perhaps what happened in construction that would make this happen?

Do you think heavier fittings, or lighter fittings, or is this something that I will have to go inside to correct (thinning, different bar, etc.)?

[Michael Darnton]

How is that same note, played on other strings?

Is there a tiny lump in the board just ahead of that note (check with a 2" long straightedge--chop a half inch off your credit card, for instance).
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[Jack London]

No bump. The other notes are fine. once I get up to the A one the E, the volume/tone goes back down.

I have found, through using a Hacklinger gauge, that I was too exuberant when I was making the recurve around the purfling, and there is an area around the lower bout on both sides that is around 2 MM thick, maybe even a tad less. (I did this when the body was already glued together because it looked like it needed to be deeper. Woops.) I would guess about 25% or so of the outer area of the lower bout is pretty thin, thinner than I thought. Might this be causing the problem?

Another hint is that I put it in a case with a humidifyer and while the problem did not go away, it was not as strident.

[Michael Darnton]

Normally I would expect if the same note on different strings did not do the same thing, then the suspect is not the note itself, but rather something about the string or the board, or perhaps the way the string goes over the bridge.
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[Jack London]

Thanks--- I will do some adusting and if anything significant happens, I will report back.