Ok I know what it's for... but umm how am I ment to use them? I can only tune by turning the pegs and I don't even know how I'd get started with using the fine tuner.

All you do is twist the screwy bit, to the right to tighten it and make it sharper and to the left to loosen it and make it flatter. They only change the pitch a little bit though. They're very useful!

yuck I tried and it's way too hard lol. I much prefer using the pegs Hopefully I can get used to it.

If you mean hard in the sense of difficult to turn then I had a similar problem on my first violin, I got fed up of wrecking my fingers trying to turn the d**n things, so I loosened one string at a time and unscrewed the corresponding fine tuner completely then stuck a bit of olive oil on the thread as a lubricant and screwed it in/out a good few times, after that it moved much more freely. However I'm no expert and I expect using olive oil was a stupid idea but hey ho it did the job

They shouldn't be hard to turn, they should turn quite easily. Maybe you need new fine tuners?! Or maybe they're screwed in too tight

they arn't too hard to turn, I just don't like them But I think they would be useful to learn to use.

I don't particularly like them either, Terra. I've only got one on my E string and I very rarely use it - I do almost all of the tuning with the pegs. Some violins don't have any fine tuners at all, and there's no rule that says you have to use them - a lot of people just find them easier to use than the pegs.

They're usually easier to use than the pegs - it's easier to be more precise with them, particularly when you first start. Most beginners' violins have 4 fine tuners, advanced players have at most one on the E string and often none at all.

Edit. They are useful if your violin is only a little out of tune. If it is going out of tune a lot because the pegs are slipping then you should do something about the pegs first.

even people who don't use fine tuners on G/D/A usually keep one on the E string. it's made of steel, so it's quite fiddly to tune with pegs; even a small movement produces a large change in pitch. the fine tuner is much easier. people who play with steel-core strings (rather than nylon or gut) tend to keep four fine tuners for the same reason.

btw, if you can tune accurately using the pegs alone, you should be quite pleased with yourself; student fiddles usually include four fine tuners because this is much easier for new players than using the pegs alone.

I use a website and do it by ear. They have the pitch of GDAE and I listen to each one while doing it. The pegs do slip sometimes when I'm tuning them but I push them in when I am tunening and they stay for the time that I need to use it. Userally the whole day. But over night it becomes untuned sometimes quite a bit. I was asuming it was because I only had it a week now and it is still new so the pegs are still a bit stiff.

Why not just use a digital tuner. when you get the string in tune the tuner will flash green to tell you and it will also tell you if you are flat or sharp.

Costs £15 and I find mine very useful indeed.

I probably will in a few months or something but I spent all my extra money on the actuall violin and some books this month I'm thinking I'd actually rather get a tuning fork and learn how to do it myself. Just because then I can tune it even if the electric one breaks down (modern technology is faulty!!!)

If you have a Mac there is a piece of software called audio tuner which will use the built in mic to check the tuning, it is free for a limited feature version, it will also play the notes so you can compare with them.
I imagine there is something for non macs but I don't know as I only use macs or linux...

I use get-tuned.com which works just fine for me. I'm trying to train my ears to recognise the correct notes that should be played. It's also free. It plays the notes for you so you can tune. I just don't like fine tuners I'd rather tune from the peg.

All i can say is buyer beware, these's item are ok, but by NO MEANS ACCURATE, I have 2 at the moment, 1 works by picking up sound via a mic and the other works by clipping it to the scroll(vibration) and both have different readings of about -5 to +5 at the same time. When you think the + or - 20 is sharp or flat the plus or -5 is quite a lot.

Search the internet for reviews of these products as there are only 4 or 5 item which are supposed to be VERY accurate.

Rachel.

+/- 20 cents isn't a sharp or flat; one semitone is 100 cents, hence the name. if you consider that an equal tempered tuner will be wrong anyway (for an instrument like the fiddle, which is tuned in perfect fifths), +/- 5 cents is accurate enough to work with.

if you want to be really accurate, you need a strobe tuner. these are very flexible (you can tune in equal temperement, or just temperement, or perfect fifths, or anything else you like), and they're very accurate, but they're also very expensive. more likely to be found in a recording studio than someone's house ;-)

Yeah I'm kind of happy sticking to listing by ear and tuning it that way. The fine tuner on my violin (the little round things) are wierd... I don't like using them because they confuse me and it's easier to use the pegs on the violin (at least for me it is).

Interestingly, Peterson, who make very fine and expensive strobe tuners and a software version to run on a mac, now produce one as an iPhone app. For about a fiver!!!!

I'm just waiting for any announcements from the mac developers' conference next week before stumping up for a phone

I don't want to go
and this may be a silly question!
but...

To what ranges of accuracy can people actually hear notes, and if you use some measuring device surely there comes a point where you tune it much more accurately than anyone could ever detect?

My theory is, if it sounds right to me it's in tune

Playing a musical instrument will make your ear more discerning in general, so range accuracy will vary between individuals.

For very tiny adjustments though, only electronic equipment would have enough sensitivity to detect changes in the pitch.

I still think there's a problem with your pegs as they shouldn't become untuned "quite a bit" just over night.

It wasn't so out of tune yesterday. If it's a persistant problem then I will take it to a luither. But it seems ok. I think the pegs had been slipping but they arn't slipping so much now.