16

What's this w-shaped ebony item from my grandma's violin case?

Possible it's not violin-related.

enter image description here

Elements in Space
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samerivertwice
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3 Answers3

44

It's a mute. It clips onto the bridge. Damps the sound.

enter image description here

This is the traditional type. There are others:

https://nolaschoolofmusic.com/blog/a-guide-to-violin-mutes

Laurence
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    Wow, that's brilliant, thanks. My daughter DEFINITELY needs to start using this when practising – samerivertwice Jan 31 '23 at 13:15
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    @samerivertwice There are also "practice mutes" that are intended for practicing. There are reasons not to use them all the time, though not necessarily what user90393 outlined – Andy Bonner Jan 31 '23 at 16:20
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    @samerivertwice That type of mute changes the sound rather than greatly diminishing it. There are other types, made of soft materials, that muffle the sound for practice. – Laurence Feb 01 '23 at 00:36
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As others have said, it's a mute, designed to be clamped on the bridge with its fingers between the strings. I warn against extended use of it for practice reasons: the violin takes considerable time to recover from longer use and redevelop its full tone.

Also it changes the response of the strings to the bowing and makes tone and intonation problems harder to hear. So (sadly for neighbors and relatives) it is a particularly bad idea for beginners still working out their intonation and tone control.

This goes doubly for the much more thorough "tone wolf", basically a rubber(?)-filled metal barrel with similar clamp-on fingers which is only intended as practice mute.

The mute depicted here is a stronger variant of a mute you'd use in concert for "con sordino" passages. A mute that looks like a rubber disk and sits on the middle strings on the tailpiece side of the bridge when unused tends to be more practical in use (though not as strong in effect) and does not squeeze the bridge to the point where it takes significant time to recover. But since it changes sound more than volume, it just serves as a concert mute, not a practice mute. And when you change the sound of a violin (by adding mutes or using different strings), that does change the body's response as well, so even here you get bounceback effects when using the mute for prolonged times.

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    I can't believe it 'changes the response of the strings to bowing', and 'violin takes considerable time to recover'. You're not supposed to hammer it onto the bridge, are you? – Tim Jan 31 '23 at 14:00
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    "The violin takes considerable time to recover from longer use and redevelop its full tone"—Sorry, I take exception to this claim. As a lifelong professional violinist, this seems like pseudoscience. However, the next paragraph is so important I'd amplify it: it's not a great idea to do most of your practicing using a practice mute, because the instrument "behaves differently" and you get used to the wrong thing. Practice mutes should pretty much just be for the occasional hotel room. Also: a wooden mute does not *necessarily* mute more strongly than a rubber one; it just has a different tone – Andy Bonner Jan 31 '23 at 16:23
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    It's too bad about the 'recover from use' issue, because your detail about practice versus concert, con sordino mutes is informative. – Michael Curtis Jan 31 '23 at 17:52
  • @user90393 Perhaps you have misunderstood something you have read about how quickly different types of mute can be removed. – Laurence Feb 01 '23 at 11:57
  • @MichaelCurtis: If Alex Baker only uses one violin, and he's the only person who uses that violin, then after the mute has been used excessively, it might take awhile before the violin would be able to produce rich full sound again (because it couldn't do so until Alex Baler rediscovered his technique). – supercat Feb 01 '23 at 21:29
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    It is simply not completely clear who recovers - it may be the violin (I can think about some residual bridge deformation between the mute fingers). But it is most probably the violinist who needs to recover from the different handling of the muted instrument. – fraxinus Feb 02 '23 at 18:12
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This is called a "mute". This can be put onto the bridge (the teeth go between the strings) to get a soft, dampened sound.

Lazy
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    Not 'so called', it actually IS a mute! 'Sticked' is misleading. There's no glue involved. – Laurence Jan 31 '23 at 12:52
  • @Laurence Fair point, although "stick" does not only mean _gluing_, but also pressing something into a different thing. – Lazy Jan 31 '23 at 13:30
  • @Laurence "So-called" isn't entirely inappropriate because "mute" is more likely to mean silenced rather than quietened down, and adding "so-called" indicates that it doesn't fully mute the sound. – samerivertwice Jan 31 '23 at 13:47
  • @samerivertwice In fairness, *no* instrument mute *fully* mutes the sound, what would be the point of that? "Mute" only implies complete silence when talking about electronics, e.g. your TV, or a perhaps a person who cannot talk for whatever reason. In the context of musical instruments, it always just dampens the sound. – Darrel Hoffman Feb 02 '23 at 14:48