How to look after a violin

A violin needs more routine attention than anything else on this site, and almost all of it takes under five minutes. The problem is that the routine is rarely taught, so student instruments accumulate small neglects that turn into repairs.

Three of the five items below cost nothing at all.

1. Loosen the bow, every single time

This is the most important thing on the page and the most commonly skipped.

A bow stick is carved with a curve, called the camber, that bends toward the hair. The hair, tightened, pulls against that curve. That opposition is what gives a bow its spring and its response.

Left tight in a case for weeks, the stick gradually gives up its camber. It becomes straight, then eventually bows the wrong way, and the bow loses its response permanently. On a student bow that is a replacement rather than a repair.

Loosen until the hair is slack but not flapping — a few turns of the screw. Tighten before playing until there is roughly a pencil’s width between the hair and the stick at the middle. Never tighten so far that the stick is straight.

2. Wipe the rosin off

Rosin is a sticky resin, and bowing sheds it as fine dust that lands on the strings and on the top of the violin under the strings.

Fresh, it wipes off with a dry cloth in fifteen seconds. Left for weeks, it hardens and bonds to the varnish, and removing it then is a job for a luthier because the solvents that shift rosin also shift varnish.

Wipe the strings along their length — rosin build-up there makes the bow grab unevenly and dulls the sound — and wipe the top under the strings. Use a dry soft cloth and nothing else. No polish, no cleaner, no water.

3. Use less rosin than you think

Beginners over-rosin, consistently, because a new bow needs a lot to get started and the habit sticks.

A new bow with fresh hair does need thorough initial application — the hair has nothing on it and will not grip at all. After that, a few passes along the hair before a session is enough.

Too much rosin sounds gritty and harsh, makes the bow feel like it is dragging, and produces clouds of dust that end up on the instrument. If a visible cloud comes off the strings when you play, that is the sign.

Rosin comes in dark and light grades. Dark is softer and grippier, generally preferred in warmer conditions; light is harder and cleaner. For a student either is fine and the one in the case with a Stentor Student II Violin Outfit#ad outfit is perfectly adequate. What is in a complete outfit is set out in what comes with a violin outfit.

4. Watch the bridge

The bridge is not glued to anything. It stands upright held by string tension alone, and that same tension slowly pulls its top edge toward the fingerboard every time the instrument is tuned upward.

Over months the bridge leans. A leaning bridge warps, and a warped bridge eventually falls — and when it falls, the soundpost inside the violin, which is also held only by tension, can drop. That is a luthier job and it is the most common avoidable repair on student instruments.

Check every week or two. Look at the bridge from the side: the face toward the tailpiece should be at roughly a right angle to the top of the violin, not leaning forward. If it is leaning, slacken the strings a little, grip the bridge at both top corners with thumbs and forefingers, and ease it upright.

If it is already warped into a curve, it needs replacing. Do not try to bend it back.

5. Humidity, the slow killer

A violin is a thin wooden box under permanent tension, and wood moves with the moisture in the air. Broadly 40 to 60 per cent relative humidity keeps it stable.

Too dry and seams open, cracks appear, and pegs shrink so they stop holding — which is why so many people find their violin will not stay tuned in midwinter. Too damp and the instrument sounds dull and glue joints can soften.

The practical version: keep it in its case when not being played, not next to a radiator, not in direct sun, never in a car boot in summer or an unheated room in winter. In a dry heated house, a case humidifier is inexpensive insurance.

The case is doing real work here. Unlike a guitar or a ukulele, where we argue for keeping the instrument out on a stand, a violin genuinely belongs in its case — it is small, it is fragile, it is easy to knock, and the case is a controllable environment. The same physics from the other direction is in ukulele care and humidity.

Strings and bow hair

Strings last roughly six to twelve months of regular student playing. Replace them when one starts unwinding, when the winding discolors where the fingers sit, or when a string will no longer play in tune with itself along its length.

Change them one at a time, never all at once. All four off together and the bridge is held by nothing, which brings you back to the soundpost problem above. Tune with a Snark clip-on chromatic tuner#ad as you go, and expect several days of settling — the method is in how to tune a violin.

Bow hair wears out and needs rehairing roughly once a year for a regular player. The signs are hair that no longer grips even with fresh rosin, a noticeably thinned ribbon, or so many broken hairs that the tension is uneven side to side. On a student instrument a rehair sometimes costs a meaningful fraction of the bow, so compare before committing.

What not to do

Never use furniture polish, alcohol or water on the body. Violin varnish is soft and solvents damage it permanently.

Never touch the bow hair with your fingers. Skin oils stop rosin adhering, and the affected section will not grip until the bow is rehaired.

Never leave it in a car. Heat softens glue joints, and violins are assembled with hide glue on purpose.

Never force a peg that will not turn. Pegboxes crack, and that is a serious repair. The rest of the kit worth owning is in violin accessories you actually need.