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E string is too tight (maybe)?
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jojo

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August 3, 2012 - 4:36 am
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when playing 3rd position on the violin, the G,D and A strings are easy to press down. The E string feels tight, I can only press down about half way. If I press down fully, it might break. I use d'addario prelude strings?

 

Has this ever happened to anyone? :(

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Oliver
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August 3, 2012 - 7:53 am
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DanielB
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August 3, 2012 - 8:37 am
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Another possibility is that the string itself just isn't right.  Sometimes you get a brand new string out of a set that just doesn't play right or sound right.  It is rare, but it happens.  

Or maybe your particular violin would just play nicer with a slightly lighter gauge E string. 

Either way, if you can take it back to where you bought it to have them take a look at it, maybe they can fix it for you.

"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

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Fiddlerman
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August 3, 2012 - 11:15 am
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E strings are tighter and mostly steel. It's hard to compare it to the other strings. You can consider low tension E strings available to purchase and the hight could be slightly higher than it should be. Be cautious if you change the nut hight as you can't really put any back if it gets so low that you get a buzzing sound when the string touches the fingerboard.

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cdennyb
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a better solution that will affect the sound less would be to slightly lower the bridge at the E string side. That would lower the E only and not affect the others or at least not affect ALL of the others. The A would be slightly lower as well but only a tiny bit.

Best left to the pro to do if you are not good with your hands and tools.

I would bet the E string side could be as low as 3.5mm in height and then be easy to play far up on the neck.

"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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Fiddlestix
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August 6, 2012 - 11:20 am
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jojo said
when playing 3rd position on the violin, the G,D and A strings are easy to press down. The E string feels tight, I can only press down about half way. If I press down fully, it might break. I use d'addario prelude strings?

 

Has this ever happened to anyone? :(

When pressing down on your E string it will naturally feel tighter than the other's. It is tighter because there is more tension on the E string. I wouldn't worry too much about it breaking, D'Addario are good string's. It also may feel real tight do to the thickness of the string and feeling it is cutting into your finger. There is a lot that determine's the ease of playing a violin and the proper set-up. Here is a link to violin set-up with all the demention's.  I'm sure there will be some discrepencies between other set-up's and this, but it's a place to start.

Good luck.

http://books.google.com/books?.....38;f=false

crossedfingers

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RosinedUp

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October 1, 2012 - 10:55 am
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jojo said
when playing 3rd position on the violin, the G,D and A strings are easy to press down. The E string feels tight, I can only press down about half way. If I press down fully, it might break. I use d'addario prelude strings?

Did you put the bridge on backwards?

First thing is to measure the distance between the string and the fingerboard at the end of the fingerboard.  For the E string, it should be about 3mm.

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