Rosins and Allergies

 

There seem to be an increasing number of people developing allergies to rosin dust, and there are now several rosins on the market designed to reduce allergic response. These are generally cooked in a vacuum. Kolstein and Geipel have been around for some time, and the new Larsen rosin also produces quite a low level of dust, but we still have customers who have had problems with all of them. We now have a rosin which is entirely synthetic and produces no dust at all. The rosin is called Clarity and is made by an American company. It is a purely chemical product which is completely transparent and gives a mellow sound that several of our   customers say they really like; and of course you won’t get that build-up of white dust on the front of your instrument.

 

 

String breakages

 

These days it is very rare to come across dud strings, given the refined techniques of modern string winding. It does occasionally happen of course but this is mostly with gut core silver wound strings, which are subject to changes of temperature and humidity.  Most string breakages are usually caused by either user error or roughness at the nut or bridge. 19 out of 20 strings reported to us as faulty have broken during the tuning process.

The give-away is the statement that ‘it didn’t even get up to pitch’. What happens is that the string gets bunched up against the peg box wall so that it constricts and tightens up on itself, and therefore breaks. Players, teachers, makers and repairers with many decades of experience all do this from time to time. If any string breaks above the nut, or between the nut and peg, then this is a user problem. None of our string suppliers will reimburse us for a faulty string, so take care! 

 

One other major cause of string breakage is the inappropriate    matching of string and adjusters.  All single adjusters are meant to be for the E string as for decades the E was the only steel string on a violin. As the E is a very thin string, the claw end of the adjuster has to be forced apart to accommodate the lower, thicker strings. If this is not done enough the string windings can be stripped off and the life of the string shortened. A major cause of   breakage on loop end E strings is sharpness on the claw that the string hooks over. There are special rubber string protectors available to alleviate this problem.

 

Occasionally, players who have been using adjusters with steel or aluminium strings decide to change to gut strings and have breakage problems. This is because the lower pitched gut strings are not designed to work with adjusters. This applies to Olives, Eudoxas, Gold label and Golden spiral strings. They do not have ball ends, just tied knots of gut. Many customers are now requesting that we fit Wittner tailpieces which contain integrated adjusters which are not harmful to the life of the string. They are easier to use in the fine tuning process than the old style single adjusters, although these are only for use with ball end strings. If you are thinking of changing strings or adding adjusters, please phone the shop to check the suitability.  It could save you money! If you have a recurring breakage problem we would be happy to look over your instrument to see if the problem can be rectified.