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My Grampa's Fiddle
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dionysia
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February 16, 2012 - 10:30 pm
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Fiddle4Fun said

If you know what year your grandmother bought the fiddle then you can probably find an inflation calculator that would tell you what today's equivalent would be.  Here's one site, for example.  http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

 

I put in 1947 and it came up with $151.30. She didn't say if she bought it before or after my dad was born, so I am just guessing.

I got the fiddle out and showed it to the kids. I used the gunky bow to show them how to make sound, but i had to hold the hair tight so it would stay off the back of the bow. I guess now I really need to learn how to rehair a bow.

My daughter wants to learn to play now, so she is playing the fingering game on this site.

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Fiddle4Fun

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Heh, kids.  smile  When my little brother saw my fiddle he got all bashful when I asked if he wanted to try playing.  He's rarely at a loss for words so it was pretty darn cute.  He had a grin from ear to ear on his face when he was sawing away.  It was about as much fun as the friend I had over who, after I walked her through playing a simple piece on the fiddle, said that the experience had inspired her to take up a musical instrument again.

 

Are your bows still straight?  My original bow (the one on the wall) not only has a bent screw and no hair but it also appears to have a slight warp to the left.  (That could be due to my somewhat skewed vision though.  I'll have to check again.)

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dionysia
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February 17, 2012 - 9:49 am
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I will try to post pictures of everything, bows included, either this evening or sometime tomorrow. The fiddle is much louder than I recall from my childhood. I may need to buy a mute so I can practice, since we have a very small house.

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Fiddlerman
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February 17, 2012 - 11:16 am
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One of our members told me that they straightened out his own bow with a heat gun. I don't know the details but he said that it worked perfectly and didn't take all that long either. Unfortunately I don't remember who the member was, so if you want to identify yourself and give better instructions :-)

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

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Kevin M.
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February 17, 2012 - 3:22 pm
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Fiddlestix said

WOW, good for you, to get your grampa's old fiddle. Personally i've never heard of using fishing line to replace horse hair on a bow, but somehow i'm not surprised at what people will / may do if they can't afford the real thing. As for the bow, unless it's cracked or broken, it can be straightened easily using a heat gun, being carefull not to get it too hot so it damages the finish. I straighten my bows whenever they begin to warp. I recently straightened one of my bows which is over 100 years old and it worked just fine, it's straight as an arrow now.  Warpage is caused alot from the way the bow is held in the hand, it's usually tilted, in most cases, toward the player do to the position of the hand which in turn will cause the bow hairs on the bridge side to break first. This puts more pressure on the opposite side of the bow stick and pulls the tip causing the warp. Also, long periods of time being in the case can also cause warpage. I've put newly rehaird bows in the case, opened the case a year or so later and couldn't figure out why all the hair was either gone completely or all over the inside of the case. My Luthier told me it was moth's,, haha,, there's no sign of them in there, then I read an article that said it was carpet mites,, that makes more sence to me.

 

But whatever you do with "Gramp's Fiddle", enjoy the heck out of it and keep fiddlin, no matter what.

Good luck, my friend.

 

It was Fiddlestix, Hopefully he will show us or tell us about doing that, straightening a bow.

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Fiddlerman
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February 17, 2012 - 4:22 pm
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Thanks Kevin. I guess you reacted to it as I did. :-) We learn stuff every day.
I think that my luthier did it with hot sand in a mold.

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

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Kevin M.
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February 17, 2012 - 7:10 pm
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I have heard of hot sand but never a heat gun. I thought it would ruin the varnish.  I have a few old bows that I'll have to try it on.  I'll take before and after pictures.

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Fiddlestix
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February 18, 2012 - 8:38 am
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Not sure if I would even try hot sand. You don't have to get the wood hot enough to ruin the finish. It doesn't take very much heat to expand the wood molecules in order to bend it. Think about it, if you leave your bow in direct sunlight or where it's very hot, the bow (over time) will warp on it's own.

 

I would think dipping the bow in hot sand would do more damage, I mean you're laying the finished wood in hot rough sand and the grains of sand can affect the smooth surface of the varnish. With the heat gun, you have a dry heat and the bow never comes in contact with anything. Heating the bow can also be done over the burner surface of an "ELECTRIC" not gas stove. I have found out that the heat gun works best, you can direct/concentrate the heat in a very small area if need be.

 

Heat and humidity, (as you probably know) is a very crucial part in the life of a violin/fiddle. Two weeks ago I had one of my bows rehaired, Monday morning I loosened the adjuster  to relax the hair, it still had tension on it. Thursday, I took it back to the Luthier who rehaird the bow. He asked me what the humidity was in my house. I wasn't there for more than 5 minutes and checked the bow hair again, it was fine, the hairs had relaxed and weren't tight at all. I was shocked that in just that short time, the affect the humidity in his shop had on the bow.

 

I think it was "Dee Major" who wanted a little more information on how to use the heat gun to straighten the bow.

Lay the heat gun on your table/workbench, support it so it doesn't vibrate all over the table, grasp the bow at each end, being carefull where you hold it by the head, the head is cross grained and it's possible to break it at that point. As you apply the heat, use gentle pressure in the opposite direction of the warp. Bend the stick beyond being straight, hold it in that position until the wood cools. You can also eliminate a twist in the wood, the same way, just twist the stick in the opposite direction. Make sure you apply the heat where the bend is, if the whole stick is warped, apply the heat the full length. With a small kink or bend, I lay the stick on my knee. The Luthier wanted $30.00 to $60.00 to straighten it and he does it the exact same way, with a heat gun. It took me about 20 minutes, for FREE. thumbs-up

I hope this information helps, it works for me.

LOL, I just read what you posted, Fiddlerman and that member was me. In the chat room I'm known as "Fiddleandbow". After I posted, I had to come back and edit this post.

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Dee Major

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Thanks so much, Fiddlestix! Great instructions! I just copied your post to my Word files until I can use a heat gun at my brother's house. The brazilwood bow I have in mind would not be worth paying a luthier to straighten it, so I appreciate it very much!!!

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Fiddle4Fun

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Thank you, Fiddlestix!  Time to go make cookies for my friend with a heat gun... wink

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Fiddlestix
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Re: Bow straightening,, a hair blow dryer may work as well, i've never tried that, I don't own one.

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Fiddle4Fun

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Hmmmm...hair dryer...

 

I might have to try that and report back.  On the one hand, I have a hair dryer so I could spend the afternoon working on the bow instead of baking bribes.  On the other hand...cookies.

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Fiddlerman
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February 18, 2012 - 1:34 pm
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I have the cheap bow that came with the violin that I sent to Huey. It is super warped so I will try it too. Maybe even make a video smile

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

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Fiddlestix
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February 18, 2012 - 3:19 pm
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Yeah FM, I thought about doing a video of that too, but my webcam cable is not long enough to reach, my 14 yr old "Sony" 8mm video cam has no adapter cable to connect to the computer so I can't do that.

It's a very simple process to straighten the bow, I did it on my 125 yr old Permambuco wood bow, then had it rehaired.

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cdennyb
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Don't be scared of attempting a re-hair on your own either. Maybe we can do them together on the forum.

Check out you tube and you can see how easy it is with the right instructions.

I have the original bow that was in the case with my old violin, a Vuillaume (probably a copy) of Paris Permambuco wood bow as well. It has silver hardware, mother of pearl inlay, and some very straight grain! (I was shocked it wasn't bent since everyone seems to have that problem. It's right at 80-90 yrs old and I just ordered a hank of Mongolian Stallion unbleached hair for $8.50 plus shipping and it should be here next week. I'll post some pics of that project if anyone is interested in another thread I'll start.

 Can't hardly wait for pics of your pieces. 

"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein

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Mad_Wed
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Fiddlerman said

I have the cheap bow that came with the violin that I sent to Huey. It is super warped so I will try it too. Maybe even make a video smile

I'd love to see that! exactly

coffee

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Fiddlerman
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February 19, 2012 - 12:02 pm
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I'll do it for sure. I have Swedish guests staying with me for the week so I probably won't be doing videos this week. :-(

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

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pky
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I have tried to straighten  my bow as well, using heat lamp, I learned this technique from my father (he use direct fire since heat lamp, heat gun were not available to us, then). Basically, you apply heat on the side you want the wood to bend, e.g., if you bow is curved to the right, you apply heat to the left so the material would expand and allow rooms for bending. Do it bit by bit, so you would not burn the wood or damage the finish. However, i don't think this technique would work for carbon fiber bow.

Fish line for bow hair is just the synthetic bow hair.

You will need to tighten the bowhair to play, preferably apply some rosin before you play, you do not need to hold onto the bowhair to tighten it. you could learn how to hold a bow by watching the FM's video about it.

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dionysia
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February 19, 2012 - 6:05 pm
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OK, I am going to try to upload pics.

 

I get an error message. dunno Gonna have to keep trying. It says upload URL might be wrong or doesn't exist.

I guess I am not smarter than the web page today.drooling

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dionysia
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OK, one more try.

Here is the case the fiddle has been kept in, in a closet of an unheated second story for decades. There are three bows in various stages of repair.

[Image Can Not Be Found]

I have tried to get all the angles of the fiddle.

[Image Can Not Be Found]

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[Image Can Not Be Found][Image Can Not Be Found]

[Image Can Not Be Found]

I had more bow pictures, but for some reason they didn't download from my camera. the hair seems to be too short for the bow with the loose hair hanging from it.

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