Introduction
Welcome to our follow-along guide on how to restring a Violin! Let’s just jump right into it, starting with a few things to keep in mind as you’re going through this process!
- Only change strings one at a time. Pulling all four strings off at once has a chance to do two (very bad) things: warp the neck from the sudden change in pressure and tension, and cause the soundpost inside the body of the violin that supports the bridge to fall.
- As you’re putting your new strings in, be sure you are twisting the correct direction, or the neck has a chance of weakening or even breaking. Plus you don’t want to ruin your muscle memory on which way to twist for up or down in pitch!
- Go slow. Violins are incredible, but also delicate instruments. There’s no reason to go fast, and it will only cause problems if you accidentally mess up going too fast. Reference this guide and the video above as you go through this process, Koralee will take you through all you need to know!
E String
We recommend starting on the E string, it’s the smallest and most difficult, so it is nice to get it out of the way all at once. To start, loosen both the E string and the A string a little bit (right next to it) so you can move it aside. Keep loosening the E string until it freely pulls out of the peg.
Putting the E String on, there are three pieces you need to know about. The string, rubber gasket, and the ball. The other three strings come all together with everything, but the E string will have two separate pieces. Don’t lose the ball! It’s tiny. To attach it, the ball will go through the loop on the end of the string. It’s difficult and can be frustrating, so take your time! Once the ball is on, the loop will connect onto the fine tuner, the rubber gasket will sit on the bridge itself, and you can loop the string through the peg! Be sure it’s tight like it should be, but don’t worry about tuning it. Because of the tailpiece, any tuning you do will come out of tune as you put the other strings on.
A String, G String, D String
Pull the next string out just like we did with the E String, and then attach the new string to the tailpiece, slide it through the peg hole, and tighten! Make sure it stays in the little groove that it needs to sit in on the bridge itself, the strings will want to fall to either side, don’t let it!
Tuning
We recommend using a D’Addario Eclipse Tuner to tune your violin! As you tune, be sure to not overtune, as that will snap your strings, and also don’t be concerned with getting it exact at first. Due to the tailpiece, as you tune one string, it will drop the tune of the other strings. So get one string as close as possible, then move on to the next string, and so on. Once you’ve tuned all four, if you go back to the first string, you’ll notice it has come out of tune! If it’s more than a half step off, using the pegs, otherwise you can use the fine tuners to get it exactly correct.
And that’s it! Shoot us a message or leave a comment if you have any questions, and happy playing!