Hi,

The title is basically all I'm asking.
You see, I've had my violin for around six months now, and besides cleaning the rosen of the body with a soft cloth and the fingerboad once with a soft cloth before restringing, I haven't really cleaned it properly. Recently, I've noticed the fingerboad looks a little dirty (though I do, when I rembered, wash my hands before playing ). So, I was wondering, should I clean it? If so, what is best to clean it with?

Thanks in advance,
LG

Actually, washing your hands may the be problem. Do you dry your hands thoroughly before touching your violin? Otherwise, dirty sploches might appear on parts of the violin which you touch with wet hands. Yeah... just clean it with a dry piece of cloth. That does the job for me.

After every time I play/practice I clean with a soft cloth:
body of violin, fingerboard (I place cloth flat in between strings and fingerboard and slide it up and down), strings and stick of bow.
I have only had my violin for 5 weeks now and so far it is as shiny as can be.
Not sure what is the best way to clean fingerboard once its soiled.
Jo

You can get both varnish cleaners and string/fingerboard cleaners from good violin shops. Pirastro do them, and some shops make up their own cleaners. I've got one of each; they come into little bottles and you just follow the instructions.

Violinia

No matter how clean your hands are your fingers will sweat when playing - its natural - we do it all the time - so by not cleaning your fingerboard regularly it's building up gunk (if you'll forgive the expression!) by a mixure of sweat and rosin. You must clean it away every other day or so. All you need to do it run a soft cloth down each side of the strings - moving the strings slightly so you get under them and finish off with a general wipe. It should surfice as I've never had the problem (I'm not bragging - I'm just wondering why you're having such a problem so soon). But to get rid of the gunk, loosen the strings and wipe the fingerboard with a weak solution of mild washing up liquid applied with a soft sponge - it should do the trick - just don't let it drip on the body of your violin. And don't forget to wipe off the solution with clean water afterwards and wipe it dry.

Re. polish on the body of your violin - only use specialist violin polish and only use it only once a year and even then use it very sparingly - otherwise it will interfere with the resonance.

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I'm playing a new violin just now and my left-hand fingertips are coming away black!!!!!

The violin is only a few days old (!) so I'm presuming it's just a bit of dust from when the fingerboard was made?

I'll try sliding a cloth up under the strings to see if that wipes it off...

Good question though because I did wonder about how to keep the fingerboard clean and the fingerprints from the body too - I just wipe the whole thing with a cloth after I have been playing.

This is probably just the strings and it's nothing to worry about it. I get it all the time from my electric and also from my accoustic if I play for a long time.

I just wipe away the rosin from the strings and underneath the strings with a soft cloth after playing.