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I thought I'd start a little thread to save me constantly raking up my intro thread over the littlest thing.
first, hey, why not some cute Ellen Van Deelen pictures of rats with violins.
http://www.redbubble.com/peopl.....new-violin
http://www.redbubble.com/peopl.....lin-player
I am learning on this
which at just over £30 is rather a donkey, goes out of tune constantly, has a soundpost that likes falling over (fortunately I've managed to put it back in, in what appears, to my highly untrained eye, to be a fair position. with something so cheap, I am not anxious of dabbling with it)
still, it's done it's job, it's shown me that I do want to learn the violin, without having to expend much money to find that out.
I am currently tracking down my next violin, which I hope will help me to progress.
for now, I am working on bowing smoothly, getting a good position, and just going up and down through the notes.
it's starting to hold tune a little better now, so hopefully in time, and maybe with some tweaks and changes it might become a not too awful backup instrument.
hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll be almost making a start in actually learning something, and I'm sure I'll then trouble you over many finer points for advice.
and another thank you, for being such a supportive, friendly and welcoming community. this is something I value a lot.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. went the violin.....
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If it got you going, then it was easily worth it. (Oh, and slipping tuning pegs can be fixed by a number of ways. My favourite is to sand them lightly.)
Great rat-pics as well. Awesome!
"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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I'll try that with the pegs.
as I said, one of the great benefits of it being nothing special is that I'm not afraid to tinker with it for fear of ruining it. they seem to be settling a bit better now, but still tricky to tune too precisely.
it seems like the tiniest grip and release on the pegs changes the note drastically. it's quite tricky to get close enough to tweak with the fine tuners.
but I'll get there, I'm fairly confident of that. you just forget how complicated everything seems when you start a new instrument.
fortunately, right now I'm in a really positive frame of mind, and I'm not being disheartened. the sounds I'm getting are far from appealing, but I am still having fun.
a bit like my archery really. I'm not amazing at that, but I enjoy the feeling of using the bow so much that how well or not I hit the target is almost a non issue. it's almost like a form of weaponry based yoga for me 
at the moment, my playing is like an instrument based yoga.
Cheap first instruments are the best for a beginner untill one understands that he overgrown it. And plus, as You said - great opportunity to experiment fearlessly in adjustments!
Looks just like my first Chinese violin, which actually i could still use, if my teacher would leave me alone, stopping annoying that i need a better instrument (I really klike my new, but it's still too advanced for me). You can master many skills with VSO before go further. It's totally fine!
Don't rush with the new instrument. Figure out firstly, what do You want that new instrument to sound like, and what you need to have in it!
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I can see what you're saying there.
I'm still in the research stage of that, and won't have the money for a while.
it's my something to work towards for now. because there's obviously only so much dodgy sound that can be blamed on a instrument. I'm sure most of the poor sound quality is my own. I'm hoping to get to a shop, so I can compare what kind of sound I get out of something better first. for now it's hard to tell how much is me, and how much is the violin.
I'm sure someone here can tell me, if the sounds are much better when the bow is absolutely overloaded with Rosin, but get worse quickly after the application, I'm guessing that's tecnique. but the fact it makes such a BIG difference could be pointing to a specific common beginners error perhaps.
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things are definitely improving on staying in tune.
the sound is still really quite iffy.
the replacement string turned up today, but has a loop end instead of a ball end. (I did check when I ordered) but all resolved easily with the seller, they don't sell loop ends, so believe that their supplier must have sent them some wrong ones, and they're getting a replacement out to me asap. very helpful of them.
got out a few scratchy bits of twinkle twinkle. so that's quite exciting.
one of the rats, Barnabus, is still finding the whole thing fascinating, and likes to sit and watch closely. maybe he thinks this is something to do with a new trick. he's my main "performing" rat, due to his boundless curiosity and attention span. I'm teaching him to run agility at the moment, as well as his tricks. so he's quite used to paying attention, rather than just doing his own thing.
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off topic for violin, but not for music, I've decided I'm going to be working on Jace Everetts Bad things on the trusty SG tomorrow. it's so delightfully filthy. (the song, not the SG, my Ruby is spotless and shiny)
I will still of course be violininininering.
so quite a musical day lined up tomorrow.
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Rattus Norvegicus said
off topic for violin, but not for music, I've decided I'm going to be working on Jace Everetts Bad things on the trusty SG tomorrow. it's so delightfully filthy. (the song, not the SG, my Ruby is spotless and shiny)I will still of course be violininininering.
so quite a musical day lined up tomorrow.
Great song, awful show (well aside from season 1 anyway) As for the SG, great choice (I'm a Gibson man myself), but I think this song calls for a hollow-body - break out that ES, or a Gretsch!
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oh I don't know. I like any old rubbish with vampires in
I can see failings in it, but I still enjoy it a lot.
ahh, the only hollow body I have is not great. it's something of a mod job dodgy old odd acoustic my uncle gave me I had pickups fitted to. I would love to have an ES, they're yummy.
I can see the need for it there, but my collection of five and a half doesn't really have much of a candidate in that area.
SG
Strat style beginner.
modified Acoustic. hasn't got the worlds best tone, and quite a tough action on my hands, but maybe when I can play the track, I'll give it a go and see if it sounds better. it might actually sound great on it, it's quite rough and rattly.
nylon strung acoustic.
peculiar japanese thing awaiting me sanding it down, getting some kinky pickups in it and a mad paint job. currently non functional.
a neck. (that's the half)
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I must take some pics of my instruments, one of these days.
my SG cherry standard is my absolute baby.
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got Hyrid Slinkys on it too, which will probably work nicely with this (9-46 guage)
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My SG is a sunburst SG-3 - 3 single coil PUs I'd rather have the standard SG with the dual humbuckers 
But I got the SG-3 at a price I couldn't pass up, I was somewhat disappointed with the build quality - the nut is flawed, but not to the point it has caused any issues yet.
I was in the market for a hollow-body, and was looking for ES's - then a flame maple Gretsch 6100 practically landed in my lap and I couldn't pass it up. Also, all of my electrics were Gibsons, so I thought it would be good to expand my collection a bit.
I'd love to see pic of your family! 
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I'll have to have a go at getting a good picture
yours sound really gorgeous.
I do love a goof Gibson. they feel so comfortable and natural, which is why the others don't really get as much of a look in. because the SG feels so right on me. fits my small hands nicely.
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I totally agree, to me Gibson means guitar
I know you didn't ask for it, but here is my family:
From left to right:
Amigo - travel guitar. I don't like the sound of the Martin Backpacker so I was looking for alternatives and found this for $89. For $89 it works well, but the action is poor and it doesn't stay in tune very well.
Gibson SG-3 - Limited run of 400 produced in 2005. 3 single coil pickups.
Gretsch 9110 Concert Ukulele - Purchased shortly after buying the Gretsch 6100 guitar, I was all about Gretsch at the time and was looking for a Uke. There are better ukulele's out there for the price I paid for this.
Orange 15R - Orange 15w practice amp with reverb! Awesome amp!
Ocarina - Hard to see, but there's an alligator shaped 4-hole Ocarina on top of the
Orange. Just threw that in there because it's an instrument
Gibson Les Paul - What else do I need to say? My first real guitar. (The predecessors where a Squire and a Harmony 'flying V' - a truly atrocious guitar, let alone having to learn on it.)
Guild D4 - When I decided I needed an acoustic, I went to Guitar Center intending to buy a Martin, none of the Martins in my price range really stood out to me so I started trying others and this is what I left with.
Cecilio CEVN-1NA - The cheap electric that seems to be so popular. Sadly, I purchased this before I found this site. It's sitting on a 'Ingles Adjustable violin/viola' stand, which is quite nice. I would recommend it if you need a stand.
Art & Luthier AMI Wild Cherry - A parlor sized guitar that makes a perfect 'sitting around the campfire' instrument. I was at a store one day to purchase a flute for my girlfriend, on the way out I spotted this guitar at a great price. The guitar turned out to be better than the GF, because I still have the guitar A&L is owned by Godin, who also owns Seagull, all of which are very good brands of varying price.
VSO - I did some work for a friend of a friend, he couldn't pay me and offered this as payment - I accepted and thus began my fiddling odyssey. I don't know anything about it and neither did He. No label, but it plays better than the Cecilio . It's hanging off a 'String Swing CC08 hanger' which is attached to a 'Stagg Orchestral Music Stand' - I'm very happy with both of these items.
Gretsch 6100 AM - My favorite instrument. I LOVE this guitar! The hardware on this is not only gorgeous, but the tuners are smooth as butter and the Bigsby 'tremolo' is simply indescribably awesome. It has a 'dampit' hanging off the low E string and into the F-hole - in case you were wondering what the line is.
Wow, didn't realize I had acquired so many instruments until I gathered them all together for this family reunion.
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WOW!!!!> CROW >>>> Me think you are a player.
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that is an AMAZING collection. very diverse, and some real gems in there.
and the Gretsch is absolutely gorgeous.
and that just completely reminded me that Richie (Mr Rattus) has a cheap guitar along that kind of a body shape that he used to play a lot. I wonder if it's at his parents and I could *coughstealcough* it. he mostly plays my Strat style beginners guitar now. because it has all of it's strings on.
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Beautiful collection Crow.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I'm about to be very brave.
as is anyone who watches this with the sound turned on on their computer 
feature=youtube_gdata
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Not bad at all, for an early effort. I'd say it was quite good.
"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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thank you 
that's reassuring
the VSO is staying in tune SO much better now, and I'm almost getting my head around the very basics of written music.
finding it really helps when I go through the notes on the strings to think the name of the note as I go through.
I've always played by ear in the past, so known if it was the right or wrong note, but not what note it actually was.
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