Usually violins bought over the internet do not arrive ready for playing. They have to be 'set up'.

The purpose of this article is to describe what this means and how to go about it. This is referring to the basic process and should not be confused with the kind of professional set-up done by respected violin shops.

There are three things that have to be sorted out. Two are obvious from the picture, i.e. the bridge and the strings, but the third is less obvious because it is something inside the instrument, i.e. the soundpost.

The soundpost is a small wooden rod that is wedged upright connecting the back and the front of the violin near the right-hand f-hole. If your instrument does not have a soundpost fitted there, you will have to get it fixed before proceeding further. That is a job for someone who has experience who has the right tool to do it so you have no choice but to find such a person to do it for you. It is important that you never attempt to play a violin without a properly fitted soundpost because not only will not produce a respectable sound but serious damage will inevitably result. Once you are satisified that the soundpost is in order, you can then turn to fixing the bridge.

In the above picture the bridge (like the one opposite) has come wrapped up and tucked underneath the tailpiece; in other words the violin has been shipped 'bridge down'. You need to extricate this carefully by firstly unscrewing the adjusters as loosely as possible to minimise the risk of them crashing down onto the varnish when you take the bridge out from under them. This bridge was supplied with a basic Chinese outfit and, by that standard, is acceptable enough. The feet are shaped and there is some curvature. It is not too high and it is possible (with some effort) to tell which way round it goes (the E-string goes on the lower side).

For comparison here are three more pictures of bridges in ascending order of quality. The first was, alas, all too common just a few years ago and we will seen far worse than this. If you buy a used violin with no assurance that it is properly set-up, you may well get one as bad as this or even possibly worse. Liz couldn't play this one so we doubt if a beginner would have had much chance.

To the right we show a picture of the bridge which comes with the Prima violins. Most beginners' violin these days do come with a playable bridge, though frequently with the cheapest instruments the bridge is too high. A bridge that is too high is not unplayable - it just takes more effort to press the strings down. We consider the Prima bridge as shown to be of the correct height. Liz would have been delighted indeed to have had students turn up with violins like this when she was teaching. You may well find that many teachers in fact do not realise how much things have improved and still expect Chinese violins to have bridges like the first one.

To complete the picture we also show a picture of a professional quality bridge. In fact this is the bridge on Liz's viola, which is her pride and joy! As you go up the price range, bridges are made of better material, are thinner and generally harder.

As you will see there is quite a noticeable variation in the quality and shape from the rougher less well fitted design of the cheapest, through the fitted bridge of the next level up to the professionally fitted bridges of more advanced models.

If a bridge is fitted properly its feet will have been shaped so that they follow the curvature of the violin body exactly. The bridge will be held in place securely by the pressure of the strings passing over the top of it alone. Never, repeat never, resort to using glue to keep the bridge in place. Not only will that ruin the varnish but also indicates that it does not fit properly. That problem has to be dealt with! It is possible, mainly on used violins, that you may come across an adjustable bridge. This is one where the feet move. These, if selected in the right height, will make virtually any violin playable and even some specialist shops will fit these on student violins.

Setting the bridge up is not difficult. The lower side will accommodate the E-string and the feet should be aligned with the notches in the f-holes with the strings going into the grooves on the top of the bridge. If when you have done this, you see that the strings are not equally spaced you may have got a bridge where the grooves have been cut in the wrong place. Not a disaster. You may well find another suitable groove and can move the string over. If not, then the metal strings will probably make their own groove. Otherwise it is easy enough to make a notch with a nail file or some other implement.

In order to set up the bridge it is likely that you will have to loosen the strings. If the tuning pegs do not work easily (and that is fairly normal) you may have to buy peg compound to loosen them up, but if the problem is not bad you will probably be able to live with it and use the adjusters to tune the strings instead. If you tackle pegs unwind them one at a time, apply the compound, put the peg back and rethread the string. At this point is almost certain that the strings will come out of the tailpiece especially if it is one of those which has built-in adjusters. By the way, if you have been really unlucky, not unlikely on a small violin, you could find that there is actually no hole to thread into. O the joys of buying a violin which has not been set up!

At this point a short comment about "ebonised" is in order. Basically the word simply means "painted black". A violin with real ebony pegs and fingerboard will cost a fair bit more than a basic student one. The extra is worth it but violin sellers know from experience that many people are not prepared to pay that bit extra on a first violin.

The picture above shows well a peg that has been "ebonised" with the paint coming away from the hole, and the picture below shows an example of ebonising simply applied into the pegbox. Also (right) we show a close-up view of the nut (the bit at the top of the fingerboard which has grooves for the strings). The brushwork clearly shows that the wood is not ebony!

We have used a Prima 80 above as an illustration. It is the most basic violin that we regularly sell. It is not an abnormally bad instrument although it is Chinese, as is the Stentor Student its direct competitor, and Chinese violins have improved greatly in the past few years. It is undeniably built for economy but it is still playable and better than the Stentor. At this level the market is intensively competitive. These kinds of violins, or rather the whole outfit including a bow and a case) come out of China at around $35 a time. On top of that there are shipping, customs, bank and other charges (and hopefully a little profit somewhere!) and the customer is looking to pay around £60 or less. You can appreciate the pressure to cut costs to the minimum!

OK, back to the main plot! You've got the bridge up and now to get to work on the strings. Starting from the bottom they are turned G-D-A-E, the G being below middle C and then they go up in fifths. If that causes you alarm, do not panic because the teacher will be used to doing a quick tuning job at the beginning of each lesson anyway.

One last thing - bows and rosins - and your chance to make life easier for the teacher by keeping the bow in a 'resined' condition!

Here is a picture of two blocks of rosin, a new unused on the far right and one that has been 'broken in' on the left. When new the rosin block has a skin which has to be worn away by repeatedly stroking the bow across it (allow twice the length of your favourite televsion programme!) until it wears a groove. Of course, it doesn't have to be a groove if you're artistically inclined, but wearing them down evenly is not an easily acquired skill and not one that we possess!