Let’s start with how to preserve the violin varnish. The great majority of our clients use cleaning fluids available in music shops. These are essential oils-based fluids which react with spirit varnish, leading to its softening. Highly saturated varnish forms a rubber-like coating, and it badly affects the tone of an instrument. It is really hard to work on such varnish then. Use only a dry cloth to clean your instrument.
When the varnish is really dirty, it is necessary to remove the dirt and thinly coat it with a transparent protection layer. Thanks to this, it is going to be easy to get rid of dirt and colophony after each playing using Just a cloth. I suggest you have it done by a violin maker.
Another important thing is to lubricate pegs and micro-tuners in the tailpiece. Most durable lubricants should be used for pegs. It is an activity which will have a desired effect only when pegs are well-fitted. If you experience any trouble or have any doubts, you are most welcome to visit us. It is also worth to lubricate the micro-tuners (bolts) in tailpieces. We lubricate the metal threads with a regular cup grease or a graphite lubricant to let them last for years. However, if you don’t lubricate them, they wear off really fast.
As regards the strings, the bridge, and the fingerboard, these are the elements we can clean with spirit. While cleaning the fingerboard, you need to be especially careful so that the spirit does not have any contact with the varnish coating an instrument as it will immediately dissolve it. Never clean strings with any fluid as they will get soaked with dissolved colophony and lose their properties. Strings should be cleaned with a dry cloth too, or at least, a paper tissue.
End of part 1. In the second part, you will learn a trick or two about how to preserve your bows.
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Author : Bartosz Wozniak, contact : 604 278 560, bartosz.wozniak@lutnicy.pl
