Books › The Violin: How to Master It, 1880 › scan 31
Scan 31
The Violin: How to Master It, 1880
10 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Adjusting the Bridge.
3Having chosen the strings, the student may now proceed to adjust them. The best height, and width, and thickness of the bridge can be decided only by experiment. A thick bridge with broad feet gives a stronger body of tone; a thin bridge tends to shrillness. A high bridge, by increasing the pressure of the strings, gives a louder tone, but the quality is not so good. French players and those who love to indulge in much tremola or close-shake playing and a loud quality of tone, delight in a high bridge and nut; while those who prefer a smooth, sweet quality of tone, and ease and exactness in stepping the upper notes, generally adopt a lower bridge.
5The bridge ought to be placed with the centre of the back edge of its right foot exactly meeting the front edge of the sound-post, which again is generally in line with the ff holes, but no invariable rule can be given. Bringing the bridge further forward weakens and softens the tone, while putting it further back over the sound-post makes the tone harder and noisier. In a properly made violin, the finger board is higher at the back than the front, and this peculiarity must be closely followed in the fitting of the bridge—the first string being rather lower or closer to the finger board than the other three. Looking along the finger-board from the scroll to the bridge, with the strings adjusted, is a good way to test the height and fit of the bridge.
7Fitting the Sound-Post.
9The sound-post must be fitted with great exactness, the ends being sloped so as to correspond with bulge of the breast and back of the violin. A sound-post setter can be bought for a few cents, or made by sharpening one end of the rib of an old umbrella, and forming a hook at the other. The sharp end of this simple tool is stuck into the short side of the sound-post near the top, which is thus conveyed through the right hole to its proper place in the interior of the violin. The withdrawing of the setter fixes the post temporarily; and it can then be shifted about, adjusted, and made more rigid by using the hooked end of the setter above or below, as may be necessary. The sound-post ought not to be too tightly fixed, so as to bulge the breast of the violin, as the pressure of the strings helps to secure it more firmly, as
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