What You Should Know About Cleaning Your Instrument
Keeping your fiddle looking good is about more than keeping up appearances
If such a thing is possible, it’s easy to both overstate and understate the delicacy of your stringed instrument’s finish. While it’s natural to focus on the magical tone-enhancing and eye-pleasing properties of your instrument’s varnish, the finish’s primary purpose is for protection. To keep your violin well protected—and looking its best—it’s important to keep your fiddle clean.
Your violin’s finish is actually pretty durable, but when maintaining your finish, it pays to be cautious and to err on the side of doing too little. Often, the very product you use to clean your instrument is the same product you would use to remove its finish, though usually at a lower concentration. So, if you have any doubts—or if a heavy cleaning is needed—take your instrument to a professional. “For a real cleaning—one that uses a solvent—don’t clean it if you have an instrument maker who can clean it for you,” violin maker Jonathan Cooper says. “Many things can go wrong because many violin varnishes are sensitive to alcohol and other solvents that are in polishes.”
Still, with some knowledge and judgment, you can safely, and effectively, clean your instrument.
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