I've written about this a bit before... but now that I'm back in Australia, I'm also playing in modern symphony orchestras again, which is a bit of a different experience to my last two decades of playing and specialising only in Early Music. I'm still primarily an Early Music specialist... but it doesn't hurt to be also playing in the orchestra... and the extra money doesn't go astray either! Man, Australia is sort of expensive to live in!

The main problem with playing in these symphonic orchestras is the fact that they will all use modern setups... so, steel and metal strings is the principal difference in setup. I have two workhorse violins. One set up for Baroque and earlier repertoire with gut strings that are appropriate for pitches around A=415Hz... and the other, set up with thinner gauge gut strings that are more appropriate for A=430/440Hz.

So, that means that I will need to restring the higher pitched violin when I need to play in symphonic orchestras. I guess if I'm brave, I probably could get away with not doing it.. but it is sort an arsehole thing to do... and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be appreciated if I showed up with a different setup to the rest of the group. After all, I would take a pretty dim view of people if they showed up to a period instrument group with a modern setup!

... and that means that I really need to remember to change those bloody strings! I love playing on the gut ones... and so, I really put off changing to the metal until the very last moment. In this case, I had completely forgotten about it... and the symphonic rehearsal is tomorrow! I made sure to ask my last student to remind me to rip off my strings and change them after the lesson was finished... and she forgot... but I just got a text message from her reminding me! I had also forgotten and had started to play around with the new lawnmower.

Sigh... after opening one of my cases, I saw that I would have another string that would need to be replaced. This is on the lower pitched violin... I'm still trying to conserve my stock of strings until I find a regular supply that isn't too expensive!

Likewise, I'm also conserving my metal strings supply as well. If I'm changing on and off every few weeks or months, I'm not really keen to put a fresh set on each time... that will end up being pretty damn expensive. It does mean that I have to remember where I had cunningly stashed the strings and fine tuner though... the last time that I changed them, I had apparently thought that it would be a good idea to leave it under a pile of music and books that were sitting on the harpsichord. Probably a different hiding spot for next would be better... this time, I chose to put the removed gut strings in a little zip-lock bag that would stay with the rest of the unused string stock.

Honestly, I was paying for my thriftiness by having the pain in the arse of trying to feed a non-straightened string into that little peg box whilst aiming for the little hole on the tuning peg! Really, this is one of the most annoying things that I've done! I wonder if there is some sort of seamstressing tool that would help with that sort of thing... it must be something that people who do sewing must do all the time?

So, the cheese-cutters are back on the instrument... and I'm ready to hack and slash my way through the music tomorrow. lots of weird new music... I probably should look at some of it, a good chunk of it seems to be up in the nose-bleed region of the violin!

... actually, now that I had a quick look at the music... it should be fine to just read at the rehearsal. Famous last words....

Anyway, these strings will stay on for a single week until the end of this particular project, and then I need to feed the gut strings back on again to be ready for a concert with my wife! I'm really looking forward to that one!

Now... to replace the strings on my favourite instrument. This old English violin is an absolute joy to play, and I consider it to be my main instrument. Just a quick replacement of the top e string... it had snapped sometime overnight. I have a whole batch of 66 gauge strings leftover form a previous violin that would support that gauge. I haven't tried that one yet on this particular violin, and so I will stick to the last 64 gauge string (the other half of which I had used recently on the d'amore). Finding the right thickness of strings is a real trial and error sort of thing... and when you find something that works, it is hard to motivate yourself to experiment further. Well... today isn't the day for experimenting on this instrument. I will need it in short order.

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