Thanks to both Jude & Layne. That was what I needed to know. See the above site for real good tuning and key signature finger positions for a violin/fiddle. Can really only tune a violin correctly one way. Tuning down to F will work, but you really don't get the best hum out of the strings. Got to convince this kid, well, he's 20, but that's a kid to me, that wasting 10 years of violin lessons and a high-dollar Antonio Strand violin just because it ain't as macho as working on a car engine, is losing out on what could be a potential for a lifetime of fun. Like I told his Dad, the girls always take the fiddle player home.

JB