Replacing a Violin Shoulder Rest
Posted on January 29, 2019
It only took me a few days of playing to determine that the shoulder rest that came with my cheat violin kit was… trash. Sorry. I hate referring to anything as “trash” but this thing not only did absolutely nothing to provide grip or comfort, but it was also too high with no way to adjust it.
The green cushion part was pretty solid and not soft. And hooking it on to the violin was rather confusing. In doing a bit of research online, you can actually pick this thing up for less than $3.00, but please don’t. It’s not even worth the materials it was made of. I’m not one who usually one to toss things in the trash, but as soon as I got my new shoulder rest and saw the difference, that’s exactly what I did.
By about day 3-4 of playing the instrument, I took note that I was having a lot of tension issues in my left arm. Doing research, I found that this could be caused by a combination of bad shoulder and chin rests. So, I set out to change the easiest one first, and ordered this nice Fiddlerman shoulder rest from Amazon. I’m quite pleased with it.
Not only does it actually support the violin and have a good shape for my shoulder, but it has adjustable legs on it, for people with much longer necks than my own. Really. I had to put it at the lowest setting to be comfortable. But hey, the option for adjustment is there.
Overall, I’m happy with the new shoulder rest, and coupled with a new chin rest (which I’ll talk about later), I think I’ve finally found a comfortable fit for holding my violin securely under my chin.