If you saw this instrument only from your window, it more probably was taped as per Foulestroupe's post. Tape can be bought specially for the purpose but most teachers incline against using it, for obvious reasons.

If you really are tone deaf, stevethesqueeze, (very few people are), maybe you should just accept that the fiddle, or any other infinite-pitch instrument, is not for you. Fretting a fiddle will make it a completely different instrument anyway.