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Ronwillmac - Posted - 01/06/2018: 02:09:11
Hi there everyone, just a thought is there a chin rest on the market that is more suitable for people with big beards? Not that I'm having any problem it just seems logical that a bigger rest would be better.
UsuallyPickin - Posted - 01/06/2018: 11:47:01
My beard comes and goes but my Guarneri style chinrest seems to do well with whatever length my beard is. R/
abinigia - Posted - 01/06/2018: 12:09:28
My beard is medium sized generally, although it gets away from me sometimes. Whiskers give some of us men extra cushioning. I prefer a rather small chin rest regardless. I hadn't thought about chin rest size in relation to beards before. Is yours spilling over onto the top and affecting the tone?
Ronwillmac - Posted - 01/06/2018: 21:23:01
Thank's, As Richard says 'my beard jus comes and goes' Some times long and some times not so long.......( there's a song there somewhere I felt it as I was writing).... I like to tie it in a band or a beard ring but beard rings are uncomfortable for fiddling and can sometimes clatter against the fiddle. As a I'm new to all this I was just wondering. It's no problem. Thanks again.
Jaunskots - Posted - 01/07/2018: 11:22:44
I'm late again, but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I prefer a smaller chinrest since I grew a beard all those years ago. I use a Wittner on the two I play most, but there is a Dresden on a used Knilling I just picked up and that is also good. Somehow I have trouble with the big rests: I can't get a purchase because the beard hair just slides. On the violin I play most often I put a GelRest cover on the Wittner chinrest, and that had the added benefit of increasing the coefficient of friction too. Much less sliding around with slippery beard hair on a slippery rest. I suppose we could take a leaf from the baroque players' book and get a chamois and drape it over the rest. That would stop the sliding, or maybe eliminate the need for the chinrest for those of us who only play in first position.
Harold
boxbow - Posted - 01/08/2018: 16:30:32
My beard is only medium heavy. It's not one of those oh so carefully maintained 5:00 shadows. I keep it longer than what's on top. I haven't played a fiddle beardless in 25 years(an early false start on fiddle). My plan is to continue playing with a beard. I've got one chinrest with a particularly high, sharp comb. The others are totally generic and without distinguishing feature. I've only had the occasional hairs pulled out by the mounting hardware on any chinrest. I've never felt that any chinrest was better or worse with my beard.
Viper - Posted - 01/09/2018: 05:17:12
I keep mine around two inches long or so. I just up and removed my chin rest altogether.
rosinhead - Posted - 01/11/2018: 17:26:29
My beard is a full 8 inches and about 7 months ago I removed the chin rests off of all of my fiddles. The beard is near being more of a should rest at this point
