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I recently started playing the violin again after a 42 year break. I loved playing when I was in school but I am definitely loving it more now that I'm an adult and can play what I want.
I rented a student instrument for a couple of months from a shop here in town, then I decided to get myself an early Christmas present and invest in a violin of my own. I settled on a higher-model Revelle with a warm, rich sound that I just love playing.
The shop where I got it (same place I rented from) has lesson rooms in the back where I go weekly for lessons. The lady who sold me the violin always asks when I come in "Has she told you her name yet?" She said "Every instrument in here has a name and they'll tell you what it is when the time is right".
I hadn't heard of this before so I did a search. There's whole articles out there on naming your violin. Do your instruments have names?
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My first cello instructor told me that about cellos. I have names for my cellos. I have carried it over to my violins and named them.
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I don't really have names for either of my violins. I just call them by their Fiddlershop names, Concert and Artist. Kind of boring, huh?
Jim
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@MoonShadows As long as they respond when you call them.
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Jim
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Congrats on the return. I returned after 32 years. I still had my old violin that I used back in school. It doesn't have a name.
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My last violin purchase was a violin the luthier had named "Coffee". I think maybe because it has a finish that looks like someone spilled coffee on it. Not sure if this guy knew who I was. Probably not. More likely just a name he gave it. If he had known me, he would know I order green coffee beans and roast my own coffee, mostly for myself but occasionally I give out bags of it. I'm pretty picky about the type of beans I use and the way I roast it. I use a fairly primitive method ( bread maker with a heat gun) It's more complicated than that, but that's the basic jist of it.
I'm not gonna say it sold me the violin. I did like that he named it that. Seemed to fit me at the time.
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I name mine, the one i'm playing right now is a lovely fiddlershop Amati called Pietro, my previous violin was an old suzuki called Nico.
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I am romantic. I call my Gewa "my Gewa", my Stentor "my Stentor" and my $50 Chinese job "my $50 Chinese job".
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
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Some believe objects can be possessed by spirits, hence the old story of the genie in the bottle. I guess that's the only way I could ever see my violin as anything more than a thing. Mine was named coffee as I mentioned. I like coffee. Providence? I don't know. The violin plays like a brick.
If that were actually true, I could only wish that Itzhak Perlman would pay mine a visit.
......but then, he would be most upset with how I play. I would say, Itzhak I am keeping you well humidified at least. Small consolation.
Might be fun to call violins by silly names. The one that layed in the attic could be named Stinky. How about Squeaky? That one probably fits for a few. Poppy?
If I could land a really expensive nice playing violin I might name that one *expletive* yeah!!! Only to be spoken with a bar of soap close by in the presence of rough men.
Woofie? Yeah that one fits one of mine well.
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I never named mine. Maybe I should.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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for me
1.my fiddle
2. the other fiddle
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I have not named mine, nor has mine told me a name yet. The same goes for my guitars, and I have had many guitars over the years.
The one exception to this is a guitar that a luthier friend hand made for me. While he was building it he would have me come to go over things since it was a fairly unique design. We decided on 'Zilth' which was based on 'Zilthy' my online nickname I had been using since the 80s on my Commodore 64. A web search will show a number of 'Zilths' out there now, but even at the time, I was the only one showing up in a web search. But these days, I tend to just use my real first name in a lot of cases, in fact the first couple of days on this forum I was showing as Zilthy until I found I could change it. Who knows, I might change it back, which will confuse many people.
At any rate, this is the only instrument I have ever had that has a name, and even then I usually refer to it as 'The Zilth'. This is also the one and only instrument that has ever become truly special to me. And not in the way of being a prized possession, but a true partner.
As far as having a spirit? I don't know. I do believe in spirits, but I do not think so many objects have one. This guitar does have an energy though, and it is the only guitar that I have owned where there are times that the music channels through me. Now that is an experience that is hard to describe.
At any rate, if such a time ever comes where I have that feeling and partnership with my violin, then perhaps my violin will have a name.
Not a violin, but me having one of those moments with that guitar some years ago.
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GregW said
for me1.my fiddle
2. the other fiddle
Hey, you stole those names from me!
Jim
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Many days it would be unlawful to repeat the name I call it.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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Gregg, LOL! That's basically me too.
Sasha, Interesting that you should mention the word channel. I am a study of the paranormal. Have been for a long time. I'm NOT one of those people who join ghost hunting groups. I do study it though in addition to lots of other stuff in that realm. I mentioned objects and spirits in semi jest. In truth I believe some objects are used as entry points and portals. Channels .Moses rod is one example. usually it isn't the good side using that though.
The good side of the spirit world is too busy doing the serious important stuff that really counts, like protecting us etc. It's usually the bad side of the spirit world that gets into the prankster stuff with the intent to mislead and fool i.e. all of those TV shows about the paranormal etc etc. I believe objects can be "christened" just like a ship is when sent off to sea. I would not come within 100 miles of a Ouija board seriously. They are potential doorways. Other objects can be entryways as well in my opinion. Note the italics for intent.
There's probably a .000001 chance that there are any violins like that unless they were intentionally put through a ceremony and spirits were called on. The bad kind. Not the same as possessed. Channel or portal devices is the term I'll use here.
I kid you not, I brought some occult educational materials home from a used book store and things began to happen in my house. To be clear I am NOT into the occult. That book went right in the trash bin OUTSIDE of my house.
If you buy anything used say from an antique stor and don't know the origins of it, if things begin to happen immediately after that, my advice is THROW IT AWAY.Burning it would probably be best. JMHO.
Ok....so now I'm the forum "nut"....lol.
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starise said
Ok....so now I'm the forum "nut"....lol.
Oh, don't say that! You were always the forum nut! 
Seriously, I hear what you are saying. The paranormal gives me the Heebie Jeebies.
Jim
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My instruments have practical, pragmatic handles:
The Antique. Violin, suspected to be German mass-produced, around 100-y-o.
The Solid. Made by myself as a practice fiddle in September last year.
The 309. An Aulos 309-e alto recorder.
The 311. An Aulos tenor recorder. Smooth.
The Wooden'un. An anonymous soprano recorder.
The Baccy-tin. A home-made theremin housed in, well, a tobacco tin.
The PVC G, PVC F, PVC D. A consort of home-made PVC low tinwhistles. Mellow.
The Gen G, Gen D, Clarke D. Real, brass high tinwhistles. Shrill.
The Stylophone. The Stylophone; an original from the 1970s.
The Jamjar. A Yamaha 49-key 'keyboard' from the 1980s. Nasty.
The Les Paul. A copy of the eponymous Gibson guitar. Exhaustingly heavy.
The Black Strat. See above, but by Tanglewood, not Fender. Currently in bits.
The Semi-acoustic. A home-made guitar, from the same bed-frame as the Solid.
There are many other bits and pieces, and they all get called what they are. There are gaps; I'd like a basset, a third violin, and a halfway-decent piano.
Peter
"It is vain to do with more that which can be done with less" - William of Ockham
"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in" - Frederick the Great
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@starise . I am interested in how you roast coffee in a bread maker. I have used a hot air popcorn popper with success, but it is difficult to get green decaffeinated coffee beans.
I generally call my violins cheap, cheaper and cheapest.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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Don't feel bad Irv my violins aren't high end instruments either 
Coffee roasters are WAY over priced IMHO and probably why you are using a popper.
Several videos on this on YouTube. Some have slightly modified their bread makers and added expensive measuring instruments. I haven't gone that far yet. The idea is to "ramp" the temperatures up gradually. I hold a heat gun to the beans while the bread maker is in dough mode. That mode begins with a slow stir that increases after about 5 minutes. While I'm doing that I have an infrared thermometer gun occasionally shooting the temps. During the 1st 5 minutes I get the beans up to about 250F. The second part of the sequence aims to slowly get up to about 420F during the next 5 minutes. At 420F or before you should begin to hear the "1st crack" just a light cracking noise as the beans cook and release their shells. This is messy and smoky. Should be done in a garage or outside. After that a few minutes later you will have "2nd crack". Just past 2nd crack is medium roast and my favorite since it retains all of the flavor, yet still fully roasts the bean. At this point it's time to begin the cooling process. Heat gun comes away and pretty quickly after that the beans need to be dumped and cooled down since they will still continue to cook from left over heat in the bread maker.
I made a home made cooler using a small box fan That has a box on top with wire mesh under it this cools the beans down pretty fast. My roasts go no longer than 12-15 minutes maximum. Temps up to 460 F are maximum and very long there the beans will burn. I don't prefer my roasts that well done since the oils are burned out of the coffee and you then begin to taste the burned bean instead of the original flavor.
If you see black beans and get a lot of smoke.....you went too far lol.
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