About the Bridge, Pegs & Chin Rest of a Violin

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m David Kaynor for expertvillage.com and I’m going to discus the parts of the violin. The pegs are generally made of ebony in this case, or rosewood or box wood, the fingerboard usually matches the pegs and in this case it’s ebony. The bridge is almost always maple and mostly carved by hand, the feet of the bridge have to conform to the top of the fiddle and that is often done with individually carved bridge feet. It’s possible to buy a commercially made bridge with movable feet which will conform more readily to more different arches, just about every fiddle has an arch on the top and an arch in the back. This is the tail piece traditionally they’re made of ebony, box wood or rose wood this one is made of metal because it has integrated fine tuners, which has become a very widely sought after means of having a great deal of fine control over the pitch of the strings. Here is the chin rest, there various kinds this is called an over the tail piece chin rest, and it clamps on either side of the tail piece. There are other chin rests which clamp over on the side of the violin in the region of the base. The structure inside the violin… there’s a block of spruce inside in the region of the end pin and the tail piece sometimes referred to as the end block, and because it’s got grain running vertically, it’s actually a relatively a strong part of the violin and it’s considered a safe place for the clamping pressure of the clamps that holds the chin rest in place. One of the disadvantages of a side mounted chin rest is that there isn’t a block inside which provides added reinforcement, and it’s possible to over clamp a chin rest particularly on sides of the violin, and that can result in buckling and damage to the ribs of the violin and damage to the top and back."