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New case smell
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Bobby
Ohio...Spring Hill, FL soon

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March 22, 2015 - 1:11 am
Member Since: March 14, 2015
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I imagine everyone has dealt wit this, but what's up with the chemical smell in new violin cases?

I had bought one about a month and a half ago for my acoustic violin, and it still has a faint chemical smell.

I also just received my Cecilio electric violin from cecilio (bought from fiddlershop) and man does that thing have an intoxicating smell.

I currently have both the cases sitting open to try and air them out, but is there other, better ways to remove the smell?

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RedViolin
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March 22, 2015 - 1:50 am
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Hi @Bobby I haven't tried this on a violin case, but charcoal is good at absorbing odours. Perhaps this might help?

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DanielB
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March 22, 2015 - 8:10 am
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Probably the absolute safest thing is to just let them air out.  Especially with a chemical or solvent smell, I'd think it would be good to get that aired out.  "New case smell" has been mentioned a few times in the forum and apparently airing them out for a few days usually does the trick.

Even if a bit of that smell stays to the case after airing, it could be worse...Lots worse.  Here's a discussion we had a while back on smells in the actual instrument and how hard they can be to get rid of.. LOL

https://fiddlerman.com/forum/t.....-my-viola/

"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman

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Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
April 1, 2015 - 11:27 am
Member Since: September 26, 2010
Forum Posts: 16429

From our experience, if we leave the cases open long enough the smell disappears. Sorry about the Cecilio case. We can arrange a return if you are not happy with it.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Bobby
Ohio...Spring Hill, FL soon

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April 1, 2015 - 12:21 pm
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The smells are slowly getting better just being aired out. I imagine the more I keep them open and exposed the sooner it will smell....normal.

@Fiddlerman I've already expressed my concerns to you in regards to the Cecilio. I replaced the fine tuners on it and put Helicore strings on it, so that's a bit better. The only issues left are the pegs not fitting very well (though good enough I spose), the nut and bridge not being setup well at all (according to my luthier) and thus causing the action to be really high on the violin.

I wasn't expecting anything spectacular for the price of the Cecilio, and I know when it comes to the setups it's pretty hit or miss with them. I understand that you guys don't set these up personally since they're drop shipped.

My luthier said it would be around $125 to have the bridge and nut shaped and shaved, and to have the pegs fitted properly. Seeing as I only paid $150 or so for the violin, I just have a hard time justifying having that done. I'm use to string action from playing guitar for a number of years, but I also can't help but think it could be negatively impacting my learning of the instrument. I have an acoustic (student quality Sheryl & Roth), but I use the Cecilio to mainly practice with at night. There is a definite difference in playing the two. Not quite sure what to do really.

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Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
April 1, 2015 - 12:34 pm
Member Since: September 26, 2010
Forum Posts: 16429

That is quite steep for shaving the nut and bridge. You could easily do it yourself. Just do it little by little to avoid taking off too much.
We have some cool guides here somewhere showing how to fit a bridge. The nut is pretty easy if you keep a similar shape to what you have and as soon as the slots are almost gone you make a minor deepening in the same spot to keep the spacing. That is provided that the spacing is correct to begin with. :)
Needle files work perfectly but don't make the grooves deep. The string should only stick up half their thickness at the most and often much less than that.
I highly recommend Hill peg compound for the pegs. That stuff corrects most problems and is by far the best product that I've ever tested for this purpose.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Bobby
Ohio...Spring Hill, FL soon

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April 1, 2015 - 12:40 pm
Member Since: March 14, 2015
Forum Posts: 26
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Fiddlerman said
That is quite steep for shaving the nut and bridge. You could easily do it yourself. Just do it little by little to avoid taking off too much.
We have some cool guides here somewhere showing how to fit a bridge. The nut is pretty easy if you keep a similar shape to what you have and as soon as the slots are almost gone you make a minor deepening in the same spot to keep the spacing. That is provided that the spacing is correct to begin with. :)
Needle files work perfectly but don't make the grooves deep. The string should only stick up half their thickness at the most and often much less than that.
I highly recommend Hill peg compound for the pegs. That stuff corrects most problems and is by far the best product that I've ever tested for this purpose.

Thanks FM. I think I may actually give this a try. The luthier's price seemed steep to me, but as I'm new to the fiddle world I wasn't sure if that was a norm. I'll do some digging around for videos :)

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