Hi guys - I wonder if anyone can shed some light on this for me. I little while ago I was asked by someone if it is true that violins, cellos etc have a ball of dust inside that musn't be disturbed? I had never heard of anything remotely like this before although it did puzzle me. Now I see someone else on the strings viva talking about dust balls, so it must be true?!? If you can tell me all about it I'd be very grateful....thanks.

Sounds like overblown mythological claptrap to me - a ball of dust that exists inside an instrument wasn't put there in the beginning and therefore has absolutely no business being there. If one should form, the choice to remove it or not will be based on how difficult it appears to get it out - if it's easy, you can bet your life it's coming out, otherwise people may well leave it there.

There is no reason (other than over the top romanticism) that would mean a ball of dust would be a desirable thing that should be encouraged and not disturbed in a stringed instrument. We frequently find that people create myths about (in particular) stringed instruments (they explode if put in aircraft holds, they are better if they are older, Strads cost more than planes/spaceships/blablabla/insert expensive item of choice here) I don't know what need they are trying to fulfil with this, but most of it is manifest nonsense that won't stand up to a minute of questioning (my previous violin teacher said 'viola is easier than violin, because the spacing is wider' but refused to admit that cello must therefore be even easier... another example of people repeating myths without thinking them through... why oh why won't people think?)

Don't panic about it - balls of dust are neither desirable nor undesirable - if you have one, get it out if you can, if you can't - it won't matter unless it becomes so big it affects the tone.

Allan

It's a VERY old violin that belongs to her teacher so that explains the existence of the dust ball. I've been disturbing it a LOT and I can tell you that so far nothing (bad) has happened to me (yet).

Dust balls take many years to form, and I know a couple of luthiers who always carefully look after the dust balls inside instruments that they take apart, and make sure that they put them back inside once the work is done. They're testament to the instrument's age