JAVS Summer 2021

With Viola in Hand

“Can You Make It Sound . . . Better?” A guide to basic instrument maintenance and how to communicate with your luthier By Lanson W. Wells

Being a musician means you have to wear many hats. In a single day you may be a teacher, an arranger, an orchestral player, a chamber musician, or an arts administrator. Throughout my career I have worn many of these hats, and I have been lucky to play orchestra and chamber music gigs, teach several instruments, and now to serve as the assistant editor of this publication. One of the hats I have worn longest is that of violin shop employee. For the past fifteen years, I have also assisted other musicians and their students in various capacities in the violin repair and sales industry. For me, it is truly gratifying to help students select their first “step-up” instrument, or to work with a top professional to help adjust their instrument for optimum performance. The information in this article has been gained through my experience playing viola and violin, and from working at both Cleveland Violins and Davidson Violins. Advising players (and parents!) on repairs is a daily part of my job, and it is often the most challenging aspect for both me and my customers. It reminds me a bit of the experience many people have when they take their car in for service. You may hear a lot of technical information that you don’t quite understand, you leave your car to be repaired, and you may still not quite understand what was done when returning to pick it up and pay the bill. I have been trying to analyze and avoid this situation for years, and I have come to the conclusion that the problem is the customer and the repair person (be it mechanic or luthier) do not speak the same language! The purpose of this article is to help you communicate with your luthier more effectively by presenting basic terminology all violists should know, common repairs we all may need from time to time, and give you some ideas on what you could (and should!) do at home and at rehearsal to care

for your instrument and bow. Additionally, I will cover some viola-specific information on sound adjustments.

When talking to my mechanic, I have often felt bad that I didn’t have the terminology to describe the issues my gig-worn car was facing. I frequently have had to resort to pointing at a part of my vehicle or trying to describe the issue in what may be hilarious layman’s words. As players, if we know the correct terms and names of all the parts of our instrument and bow, along with their function, we stand a much greater chance of effectively telling our luthier the issues we are facing. In the following section I will focus on a few of the most common problems you may encounter. Has this situation ever happened to you? You played a few hours yesterday and your viola was sounding just as good as usual, and then all of a sudden it starts to buzz today. Few things are more frustrating for a player, though an instrument with a buzz or rattle is usually an easy fix. When you bring your instrument to a repair person or a luthier, we generally start to diagnose your problem through a process of elimination, checking several common trouble spots. With a little bit of study and practice, you can diagnose these issues yourself (though you should always have the work done by a qualified repair person). Open seams are the first thing your luthier (or you) should check for. Your viola is held together with a water-soluble glue made from animal hide, which will occasionally dry up and cause the ribs of your viola to separate and become unglued from the top and or the back. You can check for open seams by lightly tapping the outer edge of the top or back, directly above where they Mystery Buzzes

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 37, 2021 Online Issue

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