I am wondering if anyone has seen one of these should pads for a violin. It came with an eBay purchase of a violin a couple of years ago. It was in poor shape and I replaced the decaying felt and the leather strap. I also added the rubber band thinking that it is what loops around one edge of a bout.
I am not seeing exactly how this fits as I am not sure I got the configuration correct. It wobbles the way I have it and doesn't make much sense to me. I get the feeling that there is a missing pad.
Has anyone ever seen one of these?
Larry
Common in the 70s. They were cheap. I hate them.
Try adding an additional rubber band going to the opposite point. That might steady it.
I have never used one of these, but am happy with the little red shoulder sponge I got from Shar music. Actually, I use one of those, and for my other fiddle, I've been experimenting with using it bare again, which seems to work for the moment. The shoulder sponge is fine but comes with little advice about how to attach the darn thing. I use three hair ties (elastic bands) knotted together, then looped on the corners of my fiddle. I can take a picture if that's helpful to anyone, but I like the low profile, it fits in my case that way, and it seems to do the job.
It's supposed to have grey rubber pads, out of the same stuff grey pencil erasers are made of, at each end, roughly the shape of whatever is red color in your photos. Not worth the trouble. Burn that hellish thing.
And it was unstable when new. Garbage.
Edited by - aston4 on 03/07/2024 11:24:39
After trying many different shoulder rests, I settled on a Bonmusica. Very adjustable and formable. Funny tho, I went 30 years without needing one and one day the fiddle was all over the place. The Bonmusica just locks it in place, with minimal head/neck strength to keep the fiddle in place.
Had one. Don't have it anymore and I keep lots of useless things so that should give you an dea about its worth.
These pads were designed to provide a cushion underneath the violin, not necessarily to make the violin more secure under the chin in the way that a shoulder rest is intended to do so. At the time that the product was invented there were professional players who used a pad, often underneath the jacket or shirt, to reduce the pressure on the collarbone. I think the idea here was to make something that could be attached directly to the violin with the belief that it would be more convenient.
Unfortunately I don’t think that the majority of the people who bought these found them very useful, and anyone who had hoped for a feeling of the violin being more anchored would find this to be a step in the wrong direction. I’ve seen several of these in old violin cases but never once in use.
I have a whole drawer full of chin rests and shoulder rests/pads that I've gone thru over the years. I really should sell some of them. Some of these were not cheap by any means, part of my penchant for buying the very best of anything. The maple Mach 1 shoulder rest was like $80 ! Gathering dust bunnies now.
Oddities like the OP's maybe better off in the bin? I'd hate to sell this to some unsuspecting beginner. 
From the shape it looks as if you threw it away it might come right back :-D
I use a Xeros pad which has some kind of magic stick-um that adheres anywhere you want without rubber bands etc.
