Violin with Frets

[jim simpson]

"The tape marks are just that, visual marks to help teach you where to put your fingers. It's your finger holding the string down against the fingerboard that sets the tone. Move your finger slightly in either direction and you slightly change the pitch being produced."

Think about frets on a dobro, they are just markers. I find the action too high though!!

[Zoe]

I play both the violin and mandolin
and always wished i had a violin that had visual marks all the way up- not really frets- but rather somehow inlayed or printed lines representing them

hmm

ciao

zoe

[J.Albert]

Just something of interest I found on this subject through google:
http://www.frettedfiddle.com/

- John

[ApK]

Just something of interest I found on this subject through google:
http://www.frettedfiddle.com/

- John

Yup, that's the thing I saw!

[deltafour1212]

I play the fretted violin and never looked back

I started learning the "devils instrument' at 50, I'm 53 now. Like everyone else, it sounded like I was killing a cat at first. Got better with a few private lessons, DVD lessons and a LOT of YouTube videos. I had no music ability but by developing my ear, muscle memory kicked in with LOTS of practice, I can figure out a song by ear within a few minutes. It's not really that hard to play by ear. I thought you had to have a natural gifted talent to do it. Trust me, If I can do it, ANYONE can do it.

My intonation was getting good but not perfect. Long story short, I bought a violin on Ebay and for only $60 dollars more they would put wired frets on. Total cost, $200.
Took it to a luthier and had it setup for $40. Best $240 I ever spent.

Whoever said you can't do vibrato or slurs on fretted violin has probably never played a fretted violin before. Like anything, you just need to learn the technique. We had 5 fellow musician's who played for years, turn their backs and each were asked which violin was fretted or non fretted when playing the vibrato . Not one person could tell the difference in sound.

You have to ask yourself this. Do you want to play and have fun as soon as possible or take the chance of getting bored, frustrated and quitting? I mean seriously, the majority of us have no illusions of making it to the "big time" and making a career out of it. Most of us like myself, just want to play the songs we like and maybe jam with a few others just for the pure enjoyment of it.

Here's what I learned playing with a fretted violin. I can concentrate just on my bowing and play, perfect intonation every time, vibrato and slurs sound just as you were playing on a fretless fingerboard. It looks cool in my opinion with frets and inlay dots like you see on guitars and mandolins. When you pull out your violin to play people are curious because its looks different than what they are used to seeing, they ask you tons of questions. Even other musicians are curious about it and want to try it out.
Some players even told me they were curious about getting one but were afraid of what their "peers" might think. I guess in their heads, if you have frets that means your not "good" enough to play a fretless in the eyes of other musicians. (AHH peer pressure) .

Like myself, I can switch from mandolin to the violin in a heartbeat without worrying about intonation.

Quit worrying about what others think and the "right" way you should to play. If people thought that with the automobile, we would still be driving steam cars. Like I said before, do you want to play and have fun as fast as you can or do you want to spend years getting good or getting so frustrated you quit before you truly experience the joy and pleasure of playing the "devils instrument" that it gives you.

*stepping off the soap box*

Delta

[Mandobar]

I've played fretted fiddles. No thanks. Half the technique of playing fiddle involves learning how to do all those cool slides.

[Jim Garber]

Hey, if it works for you, go for it! I played in a jam with a guy who plays one as his only fiddle. I didn't try his tho I don't know why I would.

I took up fiddle and mandolin at the same time (about 43 years ago). Each required a different technique but I do much more sliding when playing old time fiddle. Frets would inhibit that for sure. My intonation is decent tho I am sure that some classical folks or others with perfect pitch might cringe. I have a feeling that with frets you are still compromising intonation especially when you switch keys.

[Charles E.]

Seems to me that one would wear out some pretty expensive violin strings with frets pretty quickly.

[vic-victor]

Fretted violins were around for a while in the past. Charles Manby, the English dealer was a promoter of them. They not only sold them, but also suggested everyone modify their old instruments in the new fashion. I wonder how many old fine instruments were butchered that way?
https://animato.com.au/store/product...ngerboard.html

[Jim Garber]

I am not sure that installing frets would really butcher a fine old violin. I would bet that many of the higher end violins from way back no onger have original parts. The beauty of the design of the violin is how modular it is. I can certainly see how cutting down the body, as were done to some of the original violas, would affect the instruments but frets would just mean that the luthier would replace the fingerboard, right?

[vic-victor]

True, Jim. But still, I woudn't do it on a nice one. Best to keep it as original as possible.

[jesserules]

Fret not! Here's the solution:

http://www.fretlessfingerguides.com/

[darrylicshon]

Mark Wood has made fretted violins for years
http://www.woodviolins.com

[Bertram Henze]

Mark Wood has made fretted violins for years
http://www.woodviolins.com

The coolest idea about those is not the fretted violin, but the strapped violin - how could Stradivari miss out on that?

[Mandobar]

A big part of learning to play violin/fiddle is learning to intonate. While you might gain intonation using a fretted instrument you lose so much of the instrument's unique ability to shape sound and tone. I would think you'd also be using steel strings. That requires a whole different technique, and creates different tone and sounds.

But to each his/her own.

[MikeEdgerton]

I'm a big fan of doing what works for you when it comes to making music. I remember my guitar teacher (a thousand years ago or so it seems) having a fit when I'd use my thumb on the low e string because it wasn't the correct way to play. If it was good enough for Chet it was good enough for me. I do understand that changing a fiddle to a fretted instrument might affect one's ability to do certain things but if you never had it before it's hard to miss it.

[multidon]

Off topic, but just curious. Regarding post #5, how exactly does a guest get posting privileges on our forum? I bought only members could do that? I've never seen that in all the years I've been here.

[Michael Neverisky]

...I'd use my thumb on the low e string because it wasn't the correct way to play. If it was good enough for Chet it was good enough for me

In fact, it is impossible to play some of Chet's arrangements without thumb over. It was that technique that enabled thumbpickers to sound like they do.

I'm intrigued by the fretted fiddle. I often call the mandolin a sort-of fretted fiddle... and the fiddle a bowed, fretless mandolin. 8-)

[MikeEdgerton]

Off topic, but just curious. Regarding post #5, how exactly does a guest get posting privileges on our forum? I bought only members could do that? I've never seen that in all the years I've been here.

That was posted by a member who is no longer a member.

[Camp]

You revived a thread that's literally over a decade old hahaha!

Now back on subject, fretted fiddles seem like a semi-interesting gimmick; but I wouldn't personally devote too much time to one. One of the appeals of violin to me is specifically the freedom that comes with being frettless.

[mandroid]

One slow Winter week the local instrument repair shop owner, did that to a pretty basic fiddle..

[Seter]

If I wanted a fretted bowed instrument I'd probably just go for a proper viol de gamba.

[sbhikes]

I bought the stick-on fiddle fretter things for my fiddle. Best thing ever! The "frets" are very minimal. You still have to work on intonation, you can still do slides and all that. You just get a little bit of help. You don't have to be quite so perfect. You get a visual aid, a tactile aid and just a little bit of assistance taking the edge off the difficulty. I still can get a little off on intonation and thus I still have to work at it, but it's not so darned easy to be way off and sounding horrible. The best thing is that taking the edge off the whole intonation issue takes that distraction off the table and lets me work on the bowing part. I never got around to that part of playing the fiddle because I'd always get hung up and unable to move on from intonation.

[Bernie Daniel]

Most of the things violinists tell you about fretted violins is wrong.

I expect because most of them may have never tried to play one. If you go on YouTube and type in "fretted fiddle" or "fretted violin" you can confirm it for youself.

Mind I do not say that the two instruments are interchangeable just that you can do a lot of great things with a fretted fiddle and it will sound very fiddle like indeed. The idea has been around a very long time and it is not a mystery.

Here is another one -- this one by a mandolin player who picked up the fretted fiddle.

[Bernie Daniel]

Listen to these folks wail out on a fretted fiddle for example.......the sky is the limit.



Skilled players can do amazing things with fretted violins listen to this: