Hi all,

So far, none of you have really gotten to the heart of the matter. I mean, the jokes are cute and many things that have been said are true. But it's all tangential, not essential stuff. But it's not surprising. Only fiddlers can really define what a fiddle is.

I'm a fiddler.

I studied clbuttical guitar, and I'm somewhat familiar with clbuttical music, although I prefer Renaissance and Baroque music to anything that came after... well, Mozart is good too. I have always liked archaic sounding music, and much fiddling is rather archaic sounding, which is probably the main attraction.

1. Fiddle is the term for a violin as used in some kind of ethnic folk music. 2. This music is more often than not dance music, which used to involve stamping feet on wooden floors. To be heard above the din, a different tone is required, preferably loud and strident, with more treble bite. Think highland bagpipes, not oboe. (Hmmm... maybe that's a little too strident!) Think steel string acoustic dreadnought, not a clbuttical guitar. Or at least think cypress bodied flamenco guitar vs. rosewood bodied clbuttical guitar. Think single coiled Stratocaster vs. fat humbucker neck pickup on a jazz guitar. The common thread in the sounds analogous to a fiddle tone is that there is more clarity for chord rhythm, or in the case of bagpipes, for drones.

The amazing thing is that with the violin, the construction is identical, but out of a given number of violins, a certain number will have a tone suitable for fiddling in a particular style, and some won't.

I recently found a world clbutt violin maker an hour's drive away. I had him set the sound posts on two fiddles, and check the post's position on a third. He set the sound posts for a brighter tone as opposed to a richer tone. And he hated my steel strings! ;^)

He had me try one of his violins he thought would make a good fiddle. He said "This is what you'd use to play Irish music on the BBC." I had to admit on my couple of Irish tunes, it sounded pretty good. But Irish is mostly single note lines, and I've noticed that the tone needed for that may be a step or two towards a traditional violin sound. For one thing, they often play in ensembles with softer bagpipes, flutes and tinwhistles. So they are not the only ones carrying the melody and they need a sound that blends well. The ensembles often have rhythm instruments (bones or bodhran, a kind of drum) so they don't have to carry the rhythm like American fiddlers have always needed to do. The style I mostly play is Old Time (U.S. Traditional fiddling) In that style I use a lot of drone notes, and the full tone of the violin got in the way, made it too ponderous. The notes were big like a Cadillac, not small and nimble like a sports car. Oh yeah. My style of fiddling involves lots of bow rhythms and shuffles, so that also has a bearing on the desired tone. Fiddlers in the various British, Celtic and American traditions drag the bow, almost never lifting it off the strings to break up the phrase. To maintain rhythm and note clarity, you need a brighter sounding instrument. Somebody mentioned string choice, and it's quite true, American and Scandinavian fiddlers usually prefer steel strings. (Prims, Super Sensitive, Thomastic Precision or D'Addario Preludes) Some of that depends on the particular violin used as a starting point. A richer sounding instrument will definitely get bright sounding steel core strings, whereas an instrument that is already very bright might get composite or braided core strings.

I know of a violin dealer in Tennessee. Many of his violins he will give a completely different setup, and sell them as fiddles. (a flatter bridge is often part of it, but I don't use it. Low action is almost always part of it- steel strings are harder to press down) Others he will set up and sell as violins. (Some people in Tennessee

Often fiddlers are attracted to medium grade student violins. There is however a point below which even most fiddlers would agree with violinists that an instrument is just plain bad, not even good enough for a fiddle. Anyway, be happy there are fiddlers- we will buy your good student violins when you have upgraded to concert quality, and we help support violin shops and string manufacturers. ;^D

Michael