Years?? I wish I got that out of my strings. The longest I've been able to hold off putting new strings on a fiddle was around 10 months. I have some classical friends that change their strings like clockwork every 4-6 months.

John

I don't play a whole lot, and expectations for my sound are low.

Sad but true.

So the expensive fiddles are the ones that are quiet?

No wonder mine is so loud........... piece of crud haha.

No, the expensive ones tend to be less strident or edgy. I guess it depends on the fiddle though.

I had a hell of a time finally finding a fiddle I could tolerate. For whatever reason, my ears would take any edginess and multiply it. Took me a few years to find something.

I noticed something was wrong when I was practicing with a rental fiddle, and wanted to smash it against the wall. It wasn't a bad fiddle, but my ear was not liking it, but I didn't know why. I just wanted to smash the thing. Luckily I figured out what was going on.