My daughter plays on a Yamaha V5 Student Violin, it is on loan. They are priced about £300.

I have been told that really she needs a better fiddle, I just wanted some other people's thoughts please.

She has not taken an exam for over 2 years, so I am not sure what standard she is at. her last exam was 5. At the moment she learning something called Haydn's Violin Concerto for Solo Violin and Orchestra in G Major Hob. VIIa: 4 and has just finished working through Seven Sonatas for Violin by George Handel.

The Yamaha can be improved, which I am told will make it better for her and easier for her to play as the strings are too high at the moment, which is causing her hand to hurt.

How much longer can she manage with what she has got
Thanks in advance

I think it's very difficult to say how long her current violin will do the job, although I'm sure she would benefit from an upgrade if you could afford it.
The excessive string height might simply be fixed by recutting the bridge, or there might be a more serious problem with the neck projection*. If the neck projection is too low, recutting the bridge to rectify the problem could result in the bow catching the c-bouts. It would probably not make economic sense to fix this on such a cheap instrument.


*to check this, rest the edge of a ruler in the middle of the fingerboard so that one end touches the bridge. Then measure the height from the base of the bridge to the point where the ruler touches. Ideally should be 26-27mm. Anything less than about 24mm could be a problem.

If the action is too high, as Disco has pointed out, there are two solutions - lower the bridge or reset the neck angle. The lowering of the bridge is cheapest solution, but the fiddle will lose considerably in power. Resetting the neck would avoid this, but the cost would be considerably higher than the value of the fiddle.

I'd say bite the bullet and upgrade to something that will see her through now until dip level. Check out fiddles at your local luthier.

Have you thought of trying the people at Benslow, can't remember the full name just now, It might be possible to borrow a good instrument from them. I'm assuming her teacher has recommended a better instrument so I'm sure would back an application to them.

Thanks. We have contacted the Benslow Trust and one other. Both said they will lend her a Violin. Benslow have a long waiting list. In the mean time we are having the bridge done and a new part fitted, the piece where the stings attach at the chin rest end. this should make life easier for her untill we get her fixed up.

My experience of Yamahas is admittedly limited to trying the full range at a trade fair, but based on that, I would not say they are at all competitive at the price. It's more a matter of trading on a name rather than anything else in my opinion. Still, the lower bridge should help.

Liz

You don't say how old your daughter is, or whether violin is her main instrument...but assuming that it is...

It wasn't until the higher grades that my son had to do a lot of rapid passagework, and so I think that the high bridge and high string action on your daughter's current violin will be much more of a problem for her when playing fast than it has been up until now. My son's teacher loaned him a violin which happened to have especially low strings (for gypsy violin) to tide him over while looking for a new violin, so I think your daughter will notice the difference going from "too high" to "normal" string height.

I think the bridge and tailpiece fixer-upper will at least give you time to wait for the right violin to come along, and not be harried into making the decision because your daughter needs a playable instrument in a hurry. I can speak from experience on that . As in your case, teacher told us that the present violin was causing problems and needed to be replaced. Once the deed was done, the difference was immediately obvious - the new violin was the right shape, and immediately the strange contortions caused by trying to play something that wasn't right disappeared.

Best of luck with "good" loan violins! (Would that there was a system like that here!).

Daughter is 12. Have had yet another good chat with teacher since first post. I am told she is about to start looking at Grade 8. We will get all the paperwork done this week and see what happens.

Many thanks to you all

Yep thanks everyone
Dstring (Puddings daughter)

xxx