e fit is at all tight, do not use pressure but
get another case, your violin would be a very bad one indeed for your
sympathies to fall in with a horrible suggestion once made by the maker
of a too closely fitting case for his friend's instrument, that he
should be allowed to take a shaving or two off the violin, it would
then go in nicely. As some excuse for this maker he was not an amateur
in this line, but a professional undertaker.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM 4.]

[Illustration: DIAGRAM 5.]

We may now shift our ground and notice another source of the
complaint--rattles, jars, chatters, or grunts, which ever may appear
the most appropriate title for another variety of annoyance to the
performer. Having found out with our felt-headed hammer, or if that
is not easily obtainable, a slender stick may be covered at the end
with almost any soft material enclosed within a piece of chamois or
soft leather, and tied so as to form a knob like a small drumstick.
Having tested the violin with it in the manner before referred to, and
there being no bad reports from the body of the instrument, the hurt,
seat of injury, or lesion, may be in the neck, fingerboard, or even
the scroll, any part being liable to give out its undesirable note,
or interfere with the proper emission of musical tone from the strings.
There is no portion of the violin that will not under certain
provocations join too willingly in the production of unwelcome sounds
if the exciting conditions are present--those of checked vibration,
or vibration that should be checked. An unsuspected cause may be
discovered by the tapping test to be lurking unseen, and often unfelt,
till one note being struck in unison or sympathy with the affected spot,
may cause it to speak in a decided manner. This is at the part where
the fingerboard parts from the neck over the instrument towards the
bridge--the rather thin glue, as it should be--may, through damp or
other causes, have lost its hold for but a short distance, and not be
evident while the fingers are pressing the strings over the part; but
when notes are struck nearer towards the nut, the pressure is relieved
and the fingerboard free to take its own part. This, although a trifle
in itself, requires for its cure proper attention with suitable
appliances.

After the removal of the strings, the first suggestion naturally
occurring will be to insert, with the blade of a knife, some glue and
leave it to dry. This is more likel