By Laurie Niles: Hmmm, why is my fiddle sounding so quiet, and why can't I quite find the pitch when I'm tuning these days?
Must be time for new strings. Of course, strings tend to be expensive, and they're a pain in the *** to change. But even if you manage to avoid changing them for a long time, they will eventually begin to unravel and ultimately, break.
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I run into all kinds of scenarios with students, and especially with fractional-size violins. Those strings are even harder to find and change. Recently, I realized that a student's very small fiddle had the same strings as it had had back when I was teaching the students older sibling -- at least six years ago! Also, I suspect some places that rent violins just leave them on there until they break - not all, but certainly some.
Even with my own fiddle, my intention is to change the strings every six months, but time flies, and it often ends up being longer than that. How about you? How often do you change your strings, and what is your sign that it's time? The calendar, or the state of the strings?
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