stringy said
If I was down there I would come and listen, mind you its not exactly flying from the north, nearly as expensive on the train as flying to the states though.  

Yeah, I went to Edinburgh by plane once. And my other half went to Glasgow by train. Never again, she said, and not just because of the expense.

I bought a Polly mute for my viola. They are over-priced, but what can you do?

The sound is fine, but there is a caveat: - whereas Spector and shield mutes are pushed onto the bridge, the Polly has to be lifted onto the bridge. This is potentially dangerous, as if you forget or are unaware and push too hard you can push the bridge over. Nearly happened to me first time I used it.

I must compare it with my shield mute (the Spector resides on the violin currently)

I made a curious find in the Oxfam shop yesterday - not one, but two identical copies of Orlando Gibbons' (no relation to Grinling, assuming AI knows what it's talking about) Six Fantasias for six viols (plus organ), all parts complete. £3.49 per copy, so I speculatively bought both of them. The six parts are basically for two cellos, two violas and two violins. Here's number 2. Now, I have a violin and a viola and a Yamaha piano that has an organ voice, but I have absolutely no plans to buy a cello.

Gordon Shumway said
I'd been having problems with my E string - Optima Goldbrokat.

It was much flatter plucked than bowed, although it was also flatter if bowed loud. Trying to get perfect fifths with the A string was impossible - I played a D on the A string and then had to finger a Bb on the E string to get an A! It also warbled a lot.

So today I put on a Prim medium tension E and everything seems perfect. (my A string is also a Prim, albeit orchestral, so I'll keep my ear open for inequalities between the two)

  

[added: to explain the above further - tuned the old E string with a tuner, but fingered notes were a semitone flatter than they should have been compared with the A string. Is that just an example of an E string going bad after 2 months, or is it a bad E string for my violin? It meant a continual recalibration of my E string fingerings, and, now that I have replaced it with a good string, another recalibration - particularly annoying if you are working on something like Kreutzer #3]

I've always made the odd harsh note with my A string, especially B, and I made a couple at orchestra today (when you have to play loud, you have to play loud), so this afternoon I replaced it with a Prim medium tension. When I first got the violin it had Dominants, except for the A string, which was a Dominant Light. I'll never know if that was deliberate or accidental. When the G and D strings are Vision Solos* again or Vision Titanium solos*, all my strings will be medium tension, and I'll probably keep it that way.

*afaik, "solo" strings are usually lower tension than "orchestral" strings. Unfortunately I also have some Vision Titanium Orchestras, so I'll have to play them out some time to find out what they are like.

[added: my violist friend says "an orchestral player is likely to choose different strings to a chamber music player etc" Yes, so I'm happy to use gentler strings for chamber music, soloing and orchestra - at least in orchestra then I can feel less constrained. Why would I want to be heard?]

Gordon Shumway said

Bad news about the Artino - the rubber is peeling off fairly quickly after purchase. But even so, I think that it's so cheap that if I buy a couple and have some rubber cement and a yoga mat and/or a drawer liner for cutting out new bits of rubber, the Artino may still be a keeper.

Some non-slip rubber arrived today. If it turns out to be OTT for relining shoulder rests, I can use it as a non-slip shower mat (some of these materials are non-slip when used as shower mats, but they do slip on clothing. I don't want to take it out of its wrapper yet and unroll it.). I've got an imitation Artino (even cheaper), but it's a little bit more flexible than an Artino, which is not optimum - I think they should be rigid so as not to move on the violin. If I were better at woodwork I'd carve out a wooden one myself.

December's orchestra rep is as follows: -

Alan Taylor Prelude Remembering the civilian victims of warfare
Mahler Totenfeier
Prokofiev Selections from 'Romeo and Juliet'

Ideally I'd practise them over the summer, but it looks as though only the Mahler is available on IMSLP, and if the Prokofiev is, it's anyone's guess exactly which version it might be. And afaicr the ones on IMSLP are handwritten Russian oddities.

Gordon Shumway said

December's orchestra rep is as follows: -

Alan Taylor Prelude Remembering the civilian victims of warfare

Mahler Totenfeier

Prokofiev Selections from 'Romeo and Juliet'

This was interesting - I had looked for the Taylor on Youtube etc and not found anything, then tonight by chance one of our horn players mentioned to me on the bus that Alan Taylor was one of our violists! So I spoke to Alan in the interval. He did a masters in composition and wrote the piece 10 years ago. Its original title was politically provocative enough to get a bishop involved in somewhat of a controversy over it, but now finally it is to be performed. Apparently it's simple and discordant, so nothing to worry about.

That just leaves dredging some random Prokofiev from IMSLP and practising the hard bits in case they are useful (there's basically 51 pages of stuff in three suites). Pity I wasn't able to take part in Peter and the Wolf in September.

I just put a Roth Sihon mute on my violin.

It was a terrifying experience. Whereas Youtube videos make it look so easy.

I compared it with my viola Roth Sihon, which was much easier to put on, and found a manufacturing error which can just about be seen in this photo.

The subtle problem is the upwards curvature of the bits that have to go under the strings, making it a fierce struggle getting them under the strings. But more indicative that there's a manufacturing fault is that the part nearest the camera lens is bent the opposite way from the viola one. (violin on left, viola on right). What do you think, Pierre? @Fiddlerman