Posted by fiddlepogo on Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Black Diamond 7207s were NOT cutting it on the Eastman VL100.But I wanted to try them on another fiddle before forming a final judgement. The old Prims went back on the Eastman. The first impression wasn't good, but encouraged by bj's comment that they require a long break in, I've been trying to be patient, and it seems to be paying off. "Stinky" DOES seem to do better with them than the Eastman did. Part of this may be that the Eastman has a shorter scale than either Booker or Stinky. I thought the 7207 strings were all done stretching on the Eastman, but once I put them on Stinky they stretched some more.
One thing they were doing on the Eastman that they AREN'T doing on Stinky is "mooing"... if you pressed too hard for them, instead of squawking they would sound a noticeably flat note, then rise to pitch!
Very annoying- but they aren't doing it on Stinky, so I'm thinking they don't work well on a short scale length.
I have had to do some tweaks to Stinky to optimize her for the 7207s- the G string seemed really tight and not wanting to sound as easily as the others, so I did a tweak to loosen things up and it worked. I'm still trying to decide if I like them as well on Stinky as I liked the Prims, but at least they are useable.
One of the things I am finding is that tweaking a fiddle has limitations- you aren't going to TOTALLY change the character of a fiddle- the distinctive combinations of certain pieces of wood and the craftsmanship or lack of it are going to leave their mark. What tweaking does is allow me to moderate or accentuate certain parts of a fiddle's character.... strengthen the sound of strings, add bass, make the e string clearer, add or remove bite, etc. You CAN make a cheap fiddle perform better, but it's still not going to be a fine violin.
1 comment on “BD 7207s on Stinky, and more tweaks for Booker... and the limitations of tweaking fiddles!”
BC Says:
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 @8:47:59 PM
That's interesting regarding your BD 7207 observations. Keep us posted how they turn out. From what you're saying about tweatking, my guess is none will ever confuse my $30 special for an authentic Strad. Oh well, I had my suspicions....
You must sign into your myHangout account before you can post comments.
