Hello LaundryCrisis. Welcome to the forum.  

Speaking of laundry crisis, I have those every Sunday, which is my chosen laundry day. But for me, it is just myself and my cat that I have to do laundry for. Yeah, I wash the cat's bedding every so often too. She likes that.

I am teaching myself to play. I did have an instructor when I was a kid, but that was a long, long time ago. I had to learn everything all over again, from the beginning. Having childhood experience is a bit of an advantage, but not a huge one after not playing for about 42 years.

I am four months in to playing again, and getting better, but I still have a long way to go and much still to learn.

See you around the board.  

MACJR

Gjinja said
Hi, I just joined & hoping to learn a lot here.

 

I've played several instruments throughout my life & always wanted to try my hand at the violin but never could til recently. I literally just received my very VERY cheap student model about a week ago. It seems to sound ok to me (for a cheap student model at least) but I'm not certain I've been exposed enough to it for me to be picky about the sound quality anyway. Understanding everything that comes with student models of any instrument (strings, bridge, etc) are going to be as cheap & bad as it gets, I went ahead & bought some extra accessories to 1) attempt to upgrade the sound quality a bit... &, 2)In the case of strings, have an extra set available for when they inevitably break.

I know there's probably a better  place to ask this but I couldn't seem to find it. My question(s) is this:

*Should I go ahead & change out the strings that came on my violin when I got it, or wait until I have a better ear for any improvement it may/may not make?

 

*The bridge that came with it seems pretty cheap so I bought another... how much difference would chaning that make & should I do that as well now?

 

Thanks, looking forward to a long relationships with those I get to know here   

As for the strings, it depends on what strings came with your instrument. If they came with D"Addario Prelude strings, which is an option on some student violins, then those will do fine for now.

If they are Cecilio strings, then you may indeed want to change those out. They will do, unless they break on you, if you do not have better strings, but they really are not the best sounding strings available. Not even close.

If you do not know what type of strings that were installed, they are probably very cheap strings, whatever brand they are.

If the bridge works for now, it can wait, in my opinion. But if you are going to change strings, that would be a great time to change bridges too.  

MACJR

You will need to research how to fit a new bridge to your violin before you do anything though. There is a little more to it than just swapping one for another.

If there is a will, there is a way, though.  

MACJR

Speaking of sound posts, my brother bought a $35 violin a few months back, and his sound post fell over shortly after he got it.

He did not have the tools to fix it, and it took him a while to figure out how to fix it on his own, but he did fix it eventually. He ended up making his own tools for the job.

I have had my strings and bridge off my violin before, but I was careful. My sound post is in there tight too, and fortunately, in the right location, so I did not have a problem with that, but it is something to keep in mind. If your sound post falls over, you either need to get someone to fix it, or buy/make tools to fix it yourself. Fixing it yourself is not easy, unless you are already experienced in such things.

As MrYikes suggests, changing strings (remove and replanting them one at a time) is the safest way for a beginner to start with. If you want to try more, keep in mind that, that unless you pay someone to fix it, your violin may not be in playing condition for some time if that sound post falls over. It took my brother a month to figure out how to fix it on his own.

I would not discourage you if you really want to try changing that bridge yourself though, just  be sure to do your homework first. It is not something you want to rush into unprepared.

MACJR