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King
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This link is totally great even if you do not use a WOLFE shoulder rest.
The first video is not very long but then a second video begins quickly.
At the the bottom of the page they ask for a name and e-mail address in order to continue with more (good) instruction and the trip is WORTH IT and no virus lights came on. The site is in Australia and looks user friendly.
Everybody who uses a shoulder rest should visit this site even if just for the education.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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Looks like a great idea. Let us know what you think if you buy one Oliver.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
King
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It so happens that I just received a Wolfe Primo yesterday. This had nothing to do with the Australian site, just coincidence. I can say right now that this shoulder rest contains a lot of clever engineering and I'm improving with the fit by the hour. This may be the best of the 5 or 6 shoulder rests I have owned.
The instructions that came with the SR are TERRIBLE and it is best to know what to do BEFORE it arrives. This is why I was on the Australian site.
You may notice in the first video that they show a ( not good ) SR with a block taped to the end. That's OK, BUT the SR itself is capable of the same lift or height with the threaded rod within the threaded post design. Nicely done.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
King
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Review. Wolfe Primo.
After 2 days of working with this shoulder rest I can definitely say that it may be one of the best or, maybe not !
This SR is well engineered. Construction seems more than adequate. The problem is adjustment. There are no less than 7 ways to adjust this SR and every 1/4" changes something. But I'm sure that most people can find the right fit if they have a lot of patience. The SR is NOT ready to go as received.
I found a few configurations that felt good but I am currently distracted by another issue. I play my main violin without a SR. I wanted a SR for my electric which is a much heavier instrument. However, I find it difficult to get both violins at the exact same tilt for string crossings and this is proving to be a real pain.
Also, I have to decide on which of my many chin rests I will use. ( People who sell SR's never say that your current chin rest won't work anymore. )
So, it looks like I will be doing a lot of practice with the acoustic while I try solutions for the electric.
I e-mailed the Wolf company to complain about their horrible instruction sheet and I got back a nice e-mail from somebody named "Wolf" ! That's unusual customer service.
I am not disappointed with this SR. It may have too many gizmos to adjust but I would rather have that then not enough ( which I think is a more common situation but users may not know better).
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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Thanks for you great review.
Do you have someone who can take photos of you when you hold the electric with this new SR? Would be very interesting to see how it rests on your shoulder, chest.
Great that they sent you a kind reply. When I complain about something I usually don't hear back at all.
If you have a chin-rest that works great for you on your regular fiddle, move it to your electric and try it with your new shoulder-rest. Chances are that a good chin-rest will work with any SR provided you adjust it to rest in the same position as previously. Maybe you need to build another one of your chin-rests for your electric
I find that having a comfortable lip on the chin-rest closest to my body, gives me more confidence that the violin won't slip, thus not needing to grip and easier to just relax. I noticed that your chin-rest is quite straight. Maybe for the fun of it you can make just a little tiny hump. You can always cut it away later if it doesn't work for you.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
King
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Ah yes, the chin rest. My chin rest does not have the usual bump or rear lip BUT the straight and beveled slope IS a very close fit to my actual anatomy. I created the chin rest by simply removing any areas that did not feel comfortable. The CR has good holding power.
( I think most chin rests are too high for the average SR. but I also understand your design philosophy. I do not consider an elevated violin to be in a "natural" position even if I do it.)
Yes. I wish I had another of the custom made chin rest and I will have to bite the bullet on this issue. It was a lot of work to create the first custom CR (hours).
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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Come to think of it, your chinrest slopes away from the body so you wouldn't need a hump. For you readers that haven't seen Olivers home made CR, see link below.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
King
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My chin rest making effort has been a real learning experience and I think I may have stumbled on some important principles. I wanted to show you something in particular about my wedge shape and why it works so well. Of course, you can see in the picture attachment that it is pretty hard to pull the violin out of position towards the scroll but there is more to it than that. The picture shows chin pressure coming down and then becomes a restoring force which pulls the violin towards the player. Part of the chin pressure just goes straight down. The restoring force is about 1/3 to 1/4 of the chin pressure, not a lot but in the right direction. These mechanics are exactly the SAME all along the wedge so IF there is some violin movement ( and there will be ) the chin and jaw do not have to battle to regain control. ( "So easy, a caveman can do it." ).
(Why do I have to add numbers up to make a post ?)
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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Sorry about having to do the math. The problem is that there are so many bots crawling the web posting spam. Math is a way to make sure that a human is actually making the posts. I might be able to remove it and turn it back on only if I begin to get spam. I've read that math spam protection is the best way to avoid spam. I have another site, Fiddlestyles.com in which I didn't apply any protection and I think that I have over a thousand registered spams already.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
King
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This should be the picture for 2 posts above:
The math does not bother me to keep out scams. I keep on hoping that if I put in the right answer that bells will go off and the lap top will spew quarters all over (?) (That has not happened but I'll keep trying.)
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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I love your diagram. You are a real thinker Oliver. It makes a lot of sense actually. Thanks for all the posts.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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