# Of violins and fiddles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 1, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574 "2005-01-01T18:20:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574/1 "2005-01-01T18:20:08Z")

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If you’re playing country or bluegrass, it’s a fiddle. Otherwise, it’s a violin.

Are they really the same instrument or is there some difference in the way they’re manufactured?

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**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574/2 "2005-01-01T18:37:12Z")

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Nope, they’re the same thing. I knew a lot of violinists who would play classical and fiddle music on the same instrument.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574/3 "2005-01-01T18:48:11Z")

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Yep, in most cases, fiddle = violin. However, there’s exceptions, such as the Scandinavian [Hardanger Fiddle](http://www.hfaa.org/hardanger_fiddle.html) which makes use of sympathetic strings (which are not played directly, but which resonante with the main strings), and the _Suka_, a Polish fiddle not really like anything more familiar in Europe, played upright and using the fingernails to stop the strings.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-violins-and-fiddles/282574/4 "2005-01-01T18:53:23Z")

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Oh, and I should add that ‘fiddle’ applies to plenty of European folk music as well as American ones. And also, that folk music often involves a very different technique to classical violin.