"Fiddle" is another word for a violin.

They are actually the same instrument. It just comes down to what style of music you play on it and how it is setup.

As a general rule, we use the term fiddle when the instrument is used to play forms of music such as country, bluegrass, Celtic, Irish, etc. If used for classical, it would be called a violin.

Any violin can be setup for fiddling. We will be happy to setup the instrument as a fiddle before shipping. Just let us know.

Additional notes:

Signs that a violin was previously used as a fiddle.

Flattened bridge.

Fiddlers normally prefer less arch on the bridge. This results in less movement needed when jumping from string to string.

Fiddlers have been known to play with the fiddle resting on their forearm or even on their knee.

We occasionally see older instruments that have had the chinrest removed or possibly never had one to begin with. We do not remove the chinrest on our fiddles, though we can at your request.

Most fiddle players prefer steel strings.

Fiddles are more likely to have all four fine tuners (due to the steel strings).

We do see some fiddle players using Perlon strings. This is a gray area and there is not really a right or wrong string to use.

We have seen quite a few old fiddles with a rattlesnake rattle inside.

There is a great deal of folklore regarding this. The most popular reasons:

Superstition.

Fiddlers like the sound.

It scares off wasps.

It cleans the inside of the fiddle

While superstition is open to debate, it does slightly change the tone and as the rattle rolls around inside, it can remove spider webs and other things you may not want in your fiddle.

Again, a fiddle and a violin are one and the same.