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How To Change Violin Strings Easy And Fast Walkthrough

How to change violin strings

In the many years of playing the violin I developed this bullet proved way to change your strings on the violin

To show how it is done properly and avoid some mistakes, I made a complete walk-through of changing my violin-strings in this Video on YouTube.


Before you start, I want to prevent you from the biggest and worst mistake: Do not remove all strings at the same time! If you remove all strings, your bridge will fall off and it will be hard to find its correct position again. In worst case the sound post can fall too. Only remove one string at a time!

In the process of changing violin-strings, you can do a little maintenance program, for that you will need:

  • Eau de Cologne or cleaning alcohol
  • Peg-soap
  • Lead pencil
  • Cotton Handkerchief or a piece of cotton from old clothes
  • New violin strings
  • A violin
  • An electric tuner or a tuning fork

Lets start with the maintenance process:

First step: Remove the old string. I recommend to start with the G-String. Start at the peg to loosen the string and remove the end from the peg. Then carefully remove the ball end from the tailpiece.

Second step: Take the Cotton Handkerchief and apply some Eau de Cologne on it. Be careful not to take too much so that the Eau de Cologne is not dripping on the Varnish! With the wet part we now clean the fingerboard where the G-string was. After we removed the marks on the fingerboard, we take a dry end of the handkerchief and dry and polish the fingerboard.

Third step: Remove the peg from the pegbox and gently apply some Peg-soap on the places, where the peg touches the wood of the pegbox. After that put the peg back into the pegbox.

Fourth step: Take the Lead pencil and apply some graphite to the grooves at the nut and at the bridge.


Now you can install the new string:

It doesn’t matter with which string you start, but remember to change one string at a time!

For the G-, D- and A-string put the ball end into the hole in the tailpiece, so that it cannot slip out. Then put the lose end in the little whole in the peg, so that it just sticks out at the other side. Start turning the peg counterclockwise and hold the string slightly on tension with the free hand, so that you can control the winding on the peg. For the exact process, here is a link to the exact part in the video, where I also show a trick I do, when I wind the string up.

After the string is fairly on tension, make sure the string is in the correct grooves at the bridge and in the nut and start tuning the string with the help of an electric tuner or a tuning fork.

Check if the bridge is still in the right position: The backside of the bridge should be in a right angle to the top of the violin. If everything is in place you can continue with the next string.

The E-string comes in two options: 1. ball end, 2. sling end. Usually most tailpieces and fine tuners on beginner violins need ball end E-strings. But if you need a sling end, you can also just remove the ball from the sling.

Because the mounting of the string at the tailpiece is different and because the E-string tends to slip out of there, it is easier to start with winding the string at the peg. Don’t forget to hold it slightly on tension with your free hand while winding it up at the peg. After the string is wound up enough, you can put the sling or ball end in the fine tuner at the tailpiece without any danger of slipping.

Now we just have to make sure, that the protective plastic if right on the bridge and the string runs through the right grooves at the nut and at the tailpiece and tune the string to its correct pitch.


The correct notes of the violin strings are (from the lowest to the highest):

G-string: small g/G3

D-string: d’/D4

A-String: a’/A4

E-String: e”/E5

 


Definitely check out the video, to make sure, you get the details right! If you do it right, there should not be any problems like broken strings or a falling bridge!

If you have any problems, feel free to contact me! Good luck 😉

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