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Choosing Strings

 
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Dave Chandler
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Joined: 31 Oct 2007
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Location: Mt Mitchell in North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 6:18 pm    Post subject: Choosing Strings Reply with quote

I've found this link useful for deciding what strings to try.

http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings95/coverstory.shtml
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Lemuel
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Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 515
Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario

PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dave,

Great source of information! Thanks for the reference.
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AntonPolezhayev
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Joined: 18 Jan 2010
Posts: 53
Location: Long Island NY USA

PostPosted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My 2 cents:

If you're lucky enough to own a violin with thick decks (and a top of the food chain maker who can adjust your set-up) you can then probably play on Gamut (Heifetz's strings, very close to Paganini's strings, it's thick real uncovered gut) D and A with something like Olive G and steel e (Heifetz used Goldbrokat medium e, and gut e for some recordings)

IF they work on your violin (and they rarely work) thick stiff gut sounds incredible, nothing comes anywhere remotely close to it. It usually works on really fine violins or just the ones with really thick decks.


If however you're one of the less fortunate souls with a typical thin deck violin you're stuck with Dominants or whatever similar synthetics work for you. On some violins dominants sound bad and Obligatos sound better, but those have slow response and you really can't play a virtuoso piece on'em on highest level. But for chamber music and orchestra it's hard to beat Obligato.

Dominant is the most balanced synthetic. I'm yet to hear a violin where the much hyped Eva sounds better. Eva however is fast responding, easier to shift, and works well on some violins.


In my opinion metal strings are a mistake. Only e is ok if you play solo. And in that case I believe a more rounded yet still powerful e should be used such as Westminster Heavy, and NOT a screaming ugly typical popular e like Jargar forte.
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Chad48309
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Joined: 26 Sep 2010
Posts: 110
Location: Michigan

PostPosted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I heartily disagree that metal strings are a mistake. I know many country, celtic, bluegrass, indie, and other genres of fiddler whose sound and style are best suited for metal strings. For classical and chamber players, I agree that synthetic or gut is the only reasonable choice.

My only point is that each string has its own purpose; it's the responsibility of the artist to make the proper determination. I know many lo-fi and garage-rock artists that use Red Labels for their shriek and hiss.
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Lemuel
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Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario

PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This article among others would have been written to cover the majority of violin players and applications (i.e. the average or typical case).

It would certainly be most interesting to find a source that could relate other rare factors (perhaps even esoteric known to luthiers only) to the choice of strings.
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