I don’t know if this has been a topic here before but I didn’t see it on the search if it has
Anyway, can anyone explain what “dark” and “bright” sound means on a fiddle.
Or maybe a video showing the sound difference might help. I hear these terms often but I can’t tell myself if an instrument is one way or the other.
Edited by - HappyTune on 09/01/2024 17:46:35
If a fiddle comes at you with a lot of high frequency energy when you listen to it or play it, it's bright. If the fiddle's sound comes at you with less high frequency energy and more midrange energy it's dark or mellow. Does it reach for the heights (okay, screech) or does it croon?
I like my fiddle to have a strong and clear tone from the bass strings. I guess that means a “dark” tone. I can feel the fiddle vibrate on my shoulder when I play on the G and D strings. I don’t feel that so much on a “bright” fiddle.
I guess it takes experience to know the difference, I have only played a few fiddles
Is dark preferable?
"Dark" has more low end response. Can be warm and pleasing, but also muddy. "Bright" has more high end response - clear and can cut through other instruments, but can be shrill or harsh. Choice of strings can help with this, either way.
What is "preferable" is up to you, but the best instruments are usually well balanced between highs and lows - clear but with body.
I just got a fiddle back from my luthier after an extended stay there. When I first played it I assumed it was tuned low because of the deep tone. Tuner told me it was in tune A440. Honestly, it had been at the luthier so long I forgot why I have it in the first place - it has a nice deep tone that can still cut through a loud bluegrass band. I would guess that tone is dark.
Also have a fiddle that is very bright in that it is extremely treble heavy, especially when using steel strings.
I would think a comparison of any two fiddle would produce a difference that could be described as one or the other. And when you find a fiddle with a truly dark tone you will definitely know it. Bright is a little trickier because some of what makes a fiddle rise above the other instruments is brightness (shrill would be the extreme example).
Edited by - ChickenMan on 09/02/2024 15:20:45
I make it a point to try as many fiddles as I can. In a jam I'll always ask to try someones fiddle (and they mine), and tons of music store and fiddle shop time too. Dark and fat are synonymous for me, some fiddles have nice tone but don't have those qualities. And some are all silvery tone, pleasing on higher passages, but sound thin in lower ones. My old German trade fiddle is like that. Tone is so subjective and what pleases one ear may not delight the next.
In a broad sense you might say that violins that are dark have more presence in the lower registers and those that are bright have more presence in the upper registers. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a dark instrument has no treble or that it’s weak, just that the “sweet spot” in the violin’s core sound tends toward the lower end.
When playing violin that’s dark, you’ll often find that playing passages on the G will reveal a richness of tone that’s greater than that in the upper strings. A bright violin will often seem to come alive as you get into the upper registers.
I think it’s important to distinguish dark/bright comparisons from those of loudness, articulation, or projection. There are plenty of dark violins that can fill a hall and have wonderful E strings, just as there are bright violins that have good sounding G strings.
Bright sounding violins tend to have a somewhat buoyant quality—when you hear a lot of bright instruments in a violin section, it gives a lighter, more crystalline character to the sound. Dark instruments tend to have a more velvety or dark chocolatey quality.
Darkness and brightness can be tempered to some degree with adjustments to setup. There are fixed elements of the violin’s construction that put limits on what can be changed, though.
While it is true that sound is in large part subjective, I’ve found that players are actually fairly consistent in their descriptions of violin tone. It’s not that they all hear the violins differently, just that they end up preferring different ones.
I'm sure I've mentioned this a couple times, but I have three fiddles. One sounds dark & rich...maybe a bit too dark & rich. Another (the most expensive one though certainly not expensive in the fiddle universe) gives me haughty, finger-wagging "I'm too good for you" tone. The third is an old German factory fiddle that just quietly peeps along.
I have a student who has a fiddle that is dark, deep like a Kogut fiddle. She was using Helicores or Prims on it. We switched to Jargar Classic, the ones in the blue and white package and her fiddle now sounds, deep and dark and bright and clear all at once. Jargars give a dull thud when played pizzicato but sing when bowed. Her fiddle had a good low end that these strings filled it out nicely. They also have a sweet tone. So a fiddle can be all of those things with the right strings on it.
When I played steel strings I found that I liked Prims, but before I found them, I had a few sets of Jargars and found them to be "darker" insofar as my fiddle could go there. For that fiddle the Prims noticeably better for my tastes. I've since moved on to another fiddle entirely strung with Thomastik Vision synthetics. As others have mentioned, I'm pleased to have a more uniform response across the fingerboard and also in higher positions with this fiddle. The strings suit it very well. But not what I'd call dark sounding. I think previously I tried Jargar's mediums and heavies. The results were a bit darker but not by lots. As I recall I just felt more comfortable with the mediums. Nothing specific to that, I'm afraid.
I ended up with...and am very happy with...Chromecors on my cheap old German fiddle. They give the fiddle more life and personality than anything else ever did. The Prims, which I'd been using on David Bragger's recommendation, felt heavy under my fingers and sounded it bit blunt. I'm sure their sound carried like gangbusters, though.
