Advice on Buzzes and Wolf-tones

A wolf tone is a very raucous and unsteady tone, which may seem to want to jump to a slightly different pitch or sometimes up an entire octave [1]. Wolf-tones appear on most cellos somewhere between the notes E to F sharp, particularly on the G string and in some cases the D string. Cellos are particularly prone to wolf-tones, and they commonly occur in otherwise good instruments, the solution could be as simple as switching to a lighter string.

Cellists generally prefer a cello with an easy response and a dark, deep quality. In this case the cello will probably suffer more severely from wolf tones than a cello with a bright quality [2].

Dismiss the subject with comments such as the following. ‘Wolf notes occur in badly made instruments’; the truth is the reverse, ‘Makers should design violins so that they fall between notes’; an interesting idea if instructions then followed on how to achieve this.[3]

Sometimes one can play around a wolf tone and learn to avoid it and there are also gadgets that can suppress the wolf tone. However, if the cello has a really terrible problem with wolf tones that cannot be overcome easily, my advice is not to buy it.

A buzz is caused by two surfaces lightly touching each other and rubbing when the instrument begins to vibrate [4]. Buzzes should have been fixed by the string dealership. If the instrument has a buzz this could originate from many things; the tailpiece, the nut, something catching in the peg-box, the purfling, the endpin, any ornamentation on pegs etc. or even a ball of fluff that commonly forms in the box of a cello due to the vibrations.

It might well be that a buzz is caused by the wood pulling apart at the seams or open cracks or a cracked sound-post. A luthier should be able to quickly identify the problem and rid the instrument of a buzz. Sometimes it can be very hard to identify the buzz and the problem may persist, the cost of the repair could in rare cases be expensive [5]. Buzzes are fixable however and after the buzz is located and solved the problem should be over. A buzz should be considered as a problem with the instrument’s set-up and therefore rectifiable. The cost of repairing the set-up of an instrument is generally inconsequential when buying a costly instrument.