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Playing Since: 1973
Experience Level: Purty Good
fiddlepogo has made 6109 additions to Fiddle Hangout 
Gender: Male
Age: 58
My Instruments:
Two Knilling 4KF models:
One, labeled "Bucharest" dated 2006 and bought new. It's sounding sweet.
Another, bought on eBay is possibly from about 2000, does not say "Bucharest"
and smells funny when the weather gets warm-
could it be of Chinese origin?
I go back and forth which I like better- right now the smelly one is my cross-tuned fiddle...
which is what I bought it for actually! The Romanian one is strung with Thomastik Precision Lights (steel), the other with Prims, and I use Kaplan Premium rosin.
I recently bought an Eastman VL100 still strung with D'Addario Pro Artes.
It's mellower than the other two, and is especially well suited for waltzes, Irish tunes, Bluegrass, and probably Swedish tunes too.
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Formative influences: William Stepp, Luther Strong, Tommy Jarrell, Bunt Stephens, Franklin George, Earl Collins, Tom Sauber,
John W. Summers, Jean Carignan,
Hubbard & Molk. Many of the key ones were downbow fiddlers.
Recently I like Erynn Marshall, Matt Brown, Chirps Smith, and Michael Garvin...
I like the Bruces- Greene and Molsky too, also Jehile Kirkhuff's Pennsylvania Old Time fiddling.
Bluegrass: I heard the Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys and the Bluegrass Cardinals, also Byron Berline with somebody or other at McCabe's Guitar shop in the early '70s. I also had an LP of the Stanley Brothers, and found a cassette version of the same album a couple of years back. So I'm really mostly into the older Bluegrass styles. I can sing the bass part (barely) in the quartet singing since I'm a low baritone.
Even more recently (YouTube is expanding my fiddling mind!)
I like the Quebe Sisters Band (yeah I know their not Bluegrass!), Craig Duncan, Graham Townshend, Gilles Apap, and the Voetberg Family Band.
Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 6/27/2007
Last Visit 9/2/2010
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010 @6:53:28 PM
The new strings have inspired more practice. Last night I took the fiddle out to the historic mansion in the middle of town. Someone was on their cell near the Visitor's Center overhang where I normally play, so I parks my rear on edge of the mansion's porch.
It was near 4:00 pm, and I wasn't busking, but just trying to (in the words of an old Joni Mitchell song my girlfriend when I was 18 made me listen to) "play real good for free". Three people seemed to particularly enjoy it, and I invited two of them to the jams at the cafe I host or participate in.
And the fiddle seemed to do particularly well.
This morning I had an unusual morning gig at 11:00. I normally don't do morning gigs, because I don't really wake up till about 1:00 PM!!! But I got out the fiddle before I left, and warmed up on Seneca Square Dance and Turkey in the Straw... and the fiddling portion of the gig went well, better than usual.
Maybe partly because I was in an upbeat mood for a change, even though I wasn't thoroughly awake!!! Seems like a lighter mood results in lighter bowing... at least it feels that way.
I modified my mic stand setup... I had been using a gooseneck for the top mic, but the long goosenecks throw the stand too far out of balance, and the short gooseneck didn't extend as far as the guitar level mic mount, forcing me to lean forward.
I needed a short boom, but the only ones I saw were expensive. Finally a tripod stand with a small boom showed up on sale for about $20, and I snagged it.... MUCH BETTER!!!
Much more accurate adjustment possibilities, and it doesn't CREAK when I adjust it!
Another thing I've noticed. The carbon fiber LaSalle bow I bought some time ago has someone gotten seasoned, so it doesn't now require nearly as much rosin... more and more, I find myself forgetting to rosin, because it's feeling just fine without it. That wasn't the case when it was new.
The new K. Holtz is reminding me of that... I like the feel, but boy does it crave rosin!!!
It may seem silly, but on the way to the mansion, stopping to do banking and at a cafe, I felt conspicuous walking with a violin case. And I REALLY don't want to be mistaken for a violinist. Just a thing I have! Of course, a 58 year old with a student violin case doesn't really look like the violinist stereotype (they usually have expensive looking rectangular cases), but just to make sure, I bought some stick-on letters to label one side of the case:
"This is a fiddle!!!"
And I'm going to look for some different letters, bigger ones to just say
"Fiddler" on the other side.
I almost put "Old Time Music" on the other side, but I'd already used up both "D"s for "Fiddle"!!!
Recent Forum Posts
Busking at Farmer's Markets.... (3 hours, 18 minutes ago)
Up bow, down bow....…damn… (4 hours, 32 minutes ago)
Irish fiddling Vs. Oldtime(Appalachian) fiddling (4 hours, 53 minutes ago)
Why do fiddles "open up"? (5 hours, 9 minutes ago)
Eureka- Earl Collins bowing??? (11 days ago)
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