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Oliver said
Jack Daniels should work if rubbing alcohol not available
Only for old fiddling songs 
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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I read someplace that jean-material also works well to wipe off rosin from your strings. Has anybody else heard that? I've tried using a microfiber cloth only to see the rosin pull the material apart.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
EJK, someone mentioned in a post a while back (can't remember the thread) that their instructor demonstrated wiping excess rosin off on her own jeans. I've done it. Sure works!
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Dee Major said
EJK, someone mentioned in a post a while back (can't remember the thread) that their instructor demonstrated wiping excess rosin off on her own jeans. I've done it. Sure works!
Thanks! I'll definitely have to try it! It will sure beat picking the little fibers out of the strings every time I wipe them down! LOL
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
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My wife doesn't like when I wipe things off on my jeans. ROFL
Have to do it when she is not looking.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Isn't it amazing how so much of what we get stuck on our hands ends up on our jeans. I think of my jeans as a history of my life.
My rosin buildup problem on strings seems to be solved. Even though I cleaned it off (or tried to) every day with a dry cloth, some was sticking, especially on the large G-string, and interfering with the sound quality.
I tried Fiddlershop's dark Kaplan rosin recently and have had no problems with accumulation on strings 
and I am still wiping them after practice. This particular rosin that I got from FM comes in the neatest little black case that looks like a ring box and has a snap open lid. You may also be able to get it without the nifty box as well.
The gunk on your strings is very tiny pieces of rosin which have melted to stick to the strings. A micro cloth will remove rosin dust but not the real gunk. Almost daily I have to fingernail scratch clean my strings to restore order and this operation produces visible snow as rosin is removed.
Some "pros" who use very little rosin to begin with seem to manage with the micro cloth but ,eventually, need other means.
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I ordered french rosin from Fiddlershop I hope it will react like your Kaplan!
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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Hello everyone, new to forum and the violin, my first post to. I'm having the same problem with my violin, rosin buildup only a few seconds of playing, happens on all the string but mostly on the G-string, sounds awful and the bow keeps sliding sideways after a while. I don't have a problem with string cleaning, I'm using a really god solvent-free string cleaner (Brand:Royal Oak) and a microfiber cloth, does the trick. What I'm wondering is how do i get the excess resin of the bow without hurting the hairs, do i use a regular cloth or do i have to keep playing until it falls off? Would really appreciate some advice, really need to practice for my next class in a few days.
Love the forum guys, great place for some fiddling wisdom.
Welcome to the forum, luff,,, I am of Swedish decent also.
Sometime's I soak the bow hair in alcohol, taking it loose at the frog, winding it in a coil and soaking it in a bowl of alcohol, You need to be extremely carefull not the get the alcohol on the bow stick. I use a very soft brush on the hair's then pat the hair dry with paper towels. After the hair dries for about a hour, I rerosin the bow, only applying enough rosin to make the bow glide smoothly over the strings. Shouldn't take you more than 10 or 15 minutes to do this.
In between the alcohol process, I use a soft cloth, pinching it around the hairs sliding up and down the bow length until there is no more resistance, then I don't reapply rosin untill I need it. You can also remove excess rosin from your strings, using a soft cloth with a little alcohol, making sure you don't drip any on your violin finish. You can use a dry cloth to wipe the strings, but the rosin embed's itself into the windings of the strings, too much build up with deaden the sound of the string. The alcohol will not harm your strinigs, I got this information directly via. a phone conversation with a representative at D'Addario string company.
Good luck. 
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I wonder if just playing a while without rosining would eventually clean the bow hair?
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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Making your Swedish ancestors proud Fiddlestix, works like a charm now. Soaked the hair in alcohol and used a really fine toothbrush as a brush, got all of the rosin of and applied new rosin to it, sings like a bird and no more rosin buildups 
. Thank you !!.
Would also like to know the answer to NoirVelours question, would it clean the bow hair if you just played without rosining it?
Alcohol is often a no-no because of getting some on the bow. Is that a concern for CF bows ?
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I don't think I've been playing long enough to get a bothersome amount of buildup on the bow hairs. But the strings, especially when I was using the "came free with the violin from the factory" rosin, I was getting a good bit of buildup on the strings. I've been using alcohol "prep" pads on the bowed part of the strings, and that seems to be working well so far. I don't have a nice finish to worry about though, and if the paint on the plastic got messed up, I'd just start contemplating what wild paint job would be in the near future. LOL
I don't get a lot of rosin on the bow hairs, from what I can tell. When the bow is loose, they aren't stuck together or anything. Maybe I don't use quite enough? But the notes sound clear, usually. I find the dark Hill rosin I got when I got the new bow to be much less dusty than the harder clear yellow "no-name" stuff that came with the violin. For maybe 5 or 6 hours of playing, I'll have a bit of "mist" at the bottom of the fingerboard to wipe off, using the dark.
"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
Oliver, maybe you didn't read the part in my post saying he needed to be extremely careful NOT to get alcohol on the bow stick. If you do the procedure the way I explaned, you WON"T get any on the stick.
I'm happy it worked for you, luff. You can clean the string's the same way, only using a cloth with alcohol, being extremely carefull NOT to get alcohol on the finish of the violin.
I got that information direct from an employee at D'Addario string Co., over the phone. There was much debate here in the forum about cleaning rosin off strings, so I called the manufacturer and inquired about just that.
Good luck with your playing, luff. 
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Since the bow is made of horse hair, I'm pretty sure some mild shampoo would have worked also!
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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I clean the strings with isopropyl alcohol about once a week. It dissolves the excess rosin that builds up on strings. I am currently using "Super Sensitive" light rosin... the only kind my local music store has in stock. But I plan to soon experiment with some of the finer quality rosins, of both the light and dark variety. The way I see it is like this. The cost may be more but quality sound is worth it.
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