A good maintenance of your bow and violin (or any other bowed string instrument), whether electric or acoustic, is essential to give them an infinite lifespan.
All the points mentioned below apply equally to acoustic violins, cellos, violas or double basses, as well as to electric cellos, double basses, violas or violins (unless otherwise stated in the paragraph).
Violin maintenance
Wash your hands before each use
As with any object, if you want it not to be damaged, you must avoid leaving grease or sweat on it. Grease stains are a real problem for wooden bodies. Even if varnish seems to protect the violin, a large grease stain can still create a visible and ugly mark on the body of your instrument.
There’s only one solution: wash your hands before playing, or even between playing sessions if you tend to sweat a lot.
It will also feel more pleasant! Playing with sweaty or slippery hands is not very enjoyable.
Dust off the rosin on the violin’s body
You must take care of your instrument’s body. The first thing to do is to dust off the rosin that settles after each playing session.
Clean the body of the violin with a simple soft cloth, like microfiber! Above all, do not use any chemical or liquid product to clean your violin unless it has been recommended by your luthier. An inappropriate cleaner may damage the protective varnish of your instrument.
Some varnishes cannot withstand chemicals. They react badly to such liquids by melting, cracking, or blistering.
Do not clean the violin with your hands or fingers! As explained above, your hands naturally secrete oils and sweat that can cause stains.
Apply “popote”
Popote: the luthiers’ “magic potion” used to clean the instrument. Be careful, it’s not varnish; it’s a special cleaner for classical violins.
Popote should not be applied to electric instruments. Their bodies are not protected by traditional lutherie varnish. It is of no use on this type of instrument.
Your luthier can apply popote on your acoustic instrument or sell you some for personal application.
Don’t use it regularly as it remains corrosive. Contrary to popular belief, it does not nourish the wood or replace varnish. Its role is to clean the instrument’s surface.
How to apply popote?
- Apply a small amount of popote to a clean, soft cloth.
- Then gently rub it over the violin’s body. The cloth should become dirty after a few wipes. In that case, apply a bit more popote to a clean area of the cloth to avoid reapplying the dirt. The application is complete once the entire instrument is covered and there is no excess popote. If any excess remains, rub to dry it.
- Once applied, let it dry!
What to avoid with popote:
- Don’t apply it too often! Once a year is enough!
- Don’t use too much on the cloth… it will be hard to dry the body, and it may feel sticky. Also, cleaning would have been pointless. At the slightest bow stroke, rosin dust will stick to the tacky areas.
- Do not play before the popote is completely dry. Again, if it’s not dry, rosin dust will stick to it.
- Don’t apply popote on damaged areas. It’s not varnish and won’t replace it. If your classical instrument is damaged, go to your luthier!
Check the bridge alignment
The bridge is not fixed on any violin. It stands upright on the violin’s body by the pressure of the strings. Being unfixed, it may tilt. A tilted bridge results in poor acoustics and, most importantly, a high risk of string breakage.
So make sure it is perfectly vertical to the violin body. It should not tilt forward or backward.
If you see that it is tilted, straighten it by pinching it gently between your thumbs and fingers and realigning it. If necessary, slightly loosen the strings to help reposition it.
Discover our tutorial on realigning your violin’s bridge.
Maintain the electric violin pickup
For an electric violin using a multi-sensor piezo pickup, blow over the bridge to remove any rosin dust that may have gotten inside the pickup.
Dust tends to enter the system and may block the sensors. If they are blocked, they cannot detect the vibrations from your strings.
You can blow yourself—avoiding spraying droplets on the violin—or use a can of dry compressed air. Be careful: these sometimes release a light liquid, which you must avoid dripping on the bridge.
These cans are usually found in the electronics section, as they are used for cleaning inside computers.
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Store the violin in its case
Once you’re done playing, store the instrument in its case. It’s the best place to protect it from falls, impacts, scratches, etc. The case also protects your bow and strings.
Keep the violin in an environment that is neither too dry nor too humid to avoid sudden or significant changes in temperature and humidity. For your information, hygrometry is the science of measuring humidity in the air.
In short, musical instruments do not like heat, cold, humidity, or overly dry environments.
String maintenance
Clean the strings
Just like cleaning the violin’s body, you must clean the strings to remove excess rosin and the residues left by your fingers and hands.
Rosin buildup won’t necessarily affect the sound. However, if not removed, it can wear your strings faster. Over time, hardened rosin becomes harder to clean…
Your body naturally produces secretions, often greasy, sticky, and corrosive to strings. We see this when we leave fingerprints on glass. These secretions can gradually damage your strings. Good string maintenance ensures longer life and better sound quality.
To clean strings, avoid odd recipes involving chemicals or inappropriate objects like sandpaper or metal brushes. Sure, they scrub, but they also destroy the materials in the string!
How to clean violin strings?
Use a soft microfiber cloth to wipe the strings after each playing session. This works if the rosin deposits haven’t hardened.
If a thick deposit has built up on the strings, you’ll need to scrape it off. A soft cloth won’t be enough. Use a rigid but non-sharp object—like cardboard or a business card. The rosin clump will break off and detach. Don’t scrape with your fingers, or the cycle will repeat. You’ll remove the rosin, but leave secretions behind that will attract more rosin.
Check the condition of the strings
Check your strings’ condition. If you notice unusual wear after cleaning, it’s time to replace them. A worn string is easy to spot:
- It produces a weak or poor-quality sound
- It is eroded. This erosion is visible to the naked eye: the string looks frayed, bare in areas where the bow touches…
When replacing a string on a classical violin, you can lubricate the nut and bridge grooves with a soft graphite pencil. This is also recommended for electric violins with a bridge featuring piezo sensors, like 3Dvarius electric violins.
Read our article on how to replace your violin strings.
Maintain the pegs or tuning machines
When changing a string, take the opportunity to check your pegs or tuning machines. Make sure they turn easily and hold tuning properly.
For electric violins, a tuning machine that no longer holds tension must be replaced. This can happen after decades of use. String tension can wear out the mechanism. No other specific maintenance is needed for guitar-like tuning machines.
For classical violins, pegs may become too tight or too loose. If they are too loose, apply some chalk where the peg touches the wood. It will add grip. If too tight, use Marseille soap instead. The soap will ease tuning.
Bow maintenance
Loosen the bow hair
It may seem trivial, but people often forget to loosen the bow hair. The stick of your bow doesn’t like being constantly tight. It may adopt that curvature permanently, and the hair will overstretch.
Don’t touch the bow hair with your fingers
It’s basic: never touch the bow hair with your fingers. They are never truly clean and will deposit oils. Then the rosin will clump on the hair, the base will blacken and become sticky, etc.
Clean the stick and the hair
Like the body of your violin, the bow is protected by varnish, which does not like rosin dust. Dust off the stick and hair with a soft, clean cloth. Do not apply chemical products.
Rehair if needed
If your bow hair is missing strands because they broke over time, it will need to be rehaired. We invite you to read our article about rehairing a bow.
Store the bow if you’re not playing
After playing or rehearsing, remember to store your bow in your violin or bow case in the designated compartment. This will prevent dust from accumulating on the hair and prolong its life.
Photos: Unsplash – CDC, Uriel Soberanes, Patrick Schneider
