Violin Saddle Adjustment....
revised 5/9/2008
...The "Saddle" is the small ebony block of wood that the tailpiece 'gut' rest on at the bottom of the violin top plate. The wood grain of this piece goes from side to side for strength. It should be tuned to match the other external fittings of the violin. I suggest that it should also be tuned (by tap tone) to the center tap tone of the back plate.
...Properly tuned to match, this helps get a clean tone and quick response from your violin.
...The tap tone should be even all across the top surface, from side to side. The top surface, where the tailpiece gut touches is left untouched. If the tap tone (tapping downward on this contact surface) is too low, scrape a bit of material from the back side (toward the end pin) of the curved shape below the area that is too low. If the tap tone is too high, then scrape material from the side 'scalloped' surface on that side. This will lower the tap tone on that side of the saddle.
...This can be done with the instrument stung up by simply scraping between the two strands of the tailpiece gut, as needed.
...Remember that as with all tap tones, we are only concerned with the lowest tone in the tap. Like listening to an orchestra performance, we are listening for the note the double bass is playing. The high overtones will be the easiest to hear (like the high flute sound of an orchestra) but we need to train our ears to hear the lowest ('fundamental') part of the sound spectrum generated by our tap.
...Only tiny amounts need be scraped off to make this adjustment unless the shape needs major correction.
Scrape on these surfaces to lower the tap tone on that side.
...Scrape the curve of the back side shape to lower the tap tone directly above.
...This is the sound specturm from a tap on one plate of a recent violin, and will serve as an example of what a tap tone is composed of and what we are to listen for:
...On the left is sound level in Db; on the bottom you see the frequencies generated by a tap in the center of the top plate of my Opus #22 violin. The first prominent sound peak is the 'fundamental tap tone' that we are to listening for. However, our wonderfully designed ears (brain, nerves, etc.) hear all these generated sound frequencies at once. The highest pitches (in this case 4,000 hertz, vibrations per second) is the easiest for your ears to hear, as our hearing is more sensitive to high frequency sound. However, the 'fundament' tap tone is the first major peak (in this case about 322HZ) in the sound envelope; this is the tap tone frequency, that we want to hear and compare.
...For most of the fittings on a violin, the back plate fundamental tap tone seems to be the best goal frequency for a fine sounding instrument. {I try to use 353HZ for the back plate when I can.}