Hi,
Many thanks
@TalismanRich for your intersting reply. Yes I'm still very much a novice violin player hence the questions I ask. Possibly I've now got more money than sence but I'm taking violin playing seriously as a new long term hobby. My fingers are OK after all they receive huge amounts of heavy work each year but good point about lighter gauge strings for those with weaker fingers..
I'll never forget my first violin it being a brand new Hidersine Vivente; I was so proud of this; my wonderful wife had bought it as a birthday present for me just over a year ago; I started to practice with it but the more I practiced the worse it became; I ended up only playing the A & E strings the other two strings just didn't want to know then a forum member kindly suggested I take the violin to a luthier which I did; this brand new Hiderine was a disgrace it already needing a set of new strings but even worse the post had been rammed in; the post was well out of position; there were also other things wrong with it too the luthier charged £95 for installing a decent set of strings and setting the violin up; when I returned home I thought I had been given the wrong violin; it now sounded beautiful even to my novice playing; I actually handed over £100 because of the very useful friendly advice and information given to me. I've now got four violins and a Russian Balalaika.
I agree entirely with you about YouTube; I find YouTube gives both good and bad information the bad at times downright dangerous by the way I see American's using a big sawbence with zero regard to safety.
Years ago when I adopted vintage radio restoration I found myself in an alien world of capacitors and resistors etc; at the time I joined my first forum; as the years passed by I'd gathered all kinds of test kit like scopes; sig gens and even a very nice AVO valve tester; a forum member was asking for someone to test his two KT88 valves (Tubes) it's a long story but I ended up collecting and returning him; he brought along a selection of valves in a cardboard box including the pair of KT 88's whilst my wife supplied refreshments I started to test the valves; both KT88's were totally dead as were the rest of the valves; he had me test them twice and given the readings was my valve tester at fault; I had a very good stock of valves so tested a brand new valve of my own it gave a perfect reading; he said I must be wrong because his KT88's looked brand new?
I used to make kit of my own like power supplies as seen in the picture; here's a picture of my old radio shack it's now my recording studio.
About a week later this guy was once again requesting help on the forum to test his KT88's; he must have expected a forum member to give the valves the kiss of life? It cost me half a day plus transport and refreshments. These days I adopt a friend's attitude DIY = DON'T INVOLVE YOURSELF.
During my radio restoring years I came across music players who insited on matched pair of output valves on their amps; it still goes on with matched valves on EBay.
I wasted a full day because of the hospital phone call where the hospital stated they would call back in 24 hours? I tried phoning Calderdale hospital but now at 75 I don't think I'd have lived long enough to actually speak to someone; I was #12 in the queue so hung up; at 6pm I tried again to phone the hospital this time #5 in the queue so waited and waited and waited finally a guy spoke to me; he checked records and there was no reason for the call so I was just messed around for many hours obviously now a wrong number.
Yesterday and today just brilliant finally some happy violin practice; today I've recorded a short piece and plan to add it to YouTube; I've managed to get the recording loaded to "Audacity" now I need to learn how to transfer it to my YouTube chanel which I've not used for many years.
Kind regards, Colin.
