The first step in stringing a violin is to take your strings from their packaging and identify them. Most strings are rolled in an envelope. Different brands of strings have different colored silking on one end to differentiate between the various strings. The specific brand used in our video has yellow silking as a way to recognize it as a G string. There is a ball on the other end that will be placed into the tailpiece. The colored silking is important in securing the string in the peg later on.
Hold the violin in front of you so you can see what you are doing.
Hook the ball end of the G string in the furthest left hole of the tailpiece. Next, pull it over the bridge making sure the string goes through the furthest left notch on the bridge.
Extend the string across the fingerboard and up through the furthest left notch in the nut of the violin (up near the pegbox).
Take the end with the silking and put it through the hole of the lower left-hand peg. Let a little bit of the end of the string stick out.
Begin winding, turning the peg upward starting with the string on the right side of the peg. As you wind, the string should cross over to the left side of the peg. This will provide a stable string position on the peg.
Keep the string pulled at a nice angle while winding. As we near the end of the winding process, the string now approaches the wooden wall on the left side of the peg box.
Very gently wind the string into a light tension on the violin. Make sure the string is in the correct position on the bridge and nut notches.
Do not wind the string to its complete in-tune tension. If stringing all strings, follow the procedure above for each string before moving on. When applying the E-string, make sure the small plastic protector is placed in the notch of the bridge, preventing the string from digging in to the wood. Make sure the bridge is well centered and in the correct upright position. It should lean slightly backward so there is no danger it will fall over. After you have checked to make sure the bridge and strings are all positioned correctly you can begin tuning the instrument, pulling the strings to their full tension and pitch.
See our BRIDGE PLACEMENT video for more info. See our video on how to use your fine tuning pegs.
