Hello,

My violin is fitted with dominant strings. This is all the information I have. I was thinking of getting a spare set of strings but am confused by the terminology.

What is the difference between light, medium heavy? What does ball end and factory fresh mean? Are light strings easier to press down?

Another reason I am curious is because a friend of mine is thinking of getting an Andreas Zeller and buying it online. She wants strings like mine but I have no idea what to tell her!

Thanks,

LearnerFlute xx

Light/medium/heavy is the tension of the strings. Vast majority of people use medium, and that will be what you'll need The set you have on at the moment will be medium tension
Ball and and loop and are the ends of E strings, and which one you need depends on the type of fine tuner you have. I have a loop end fine tuner, but i suspect yours will be ball which seem to be more popular these days - have a look at your E string and see if the end of it is a metal ball or a thin loop of metal on a hook.
A loop end fine tuner will look like this http://blog.sharmusic.com/Portals/47259/im...resized-600.jpg ball end string like this http://www.swstrings.com/images/education/string-BallEnd.jpg though the ball may not be hollow
I'm assuming factory fresh means they've just been made and haven't been sitting on a shelf for a long time, not heard the term before though!
So just tell your friend to get a medium set of dominants, she won't know if she needs a ball end or loop end E string till she sees what type of fine tuner is on the violin though unless she asks the shop - i expect it'll be the same as yours
Hope that helps

I think factory fresh is a piece of marketing fluff. They would have to be very badly stored for that to be an issue.

As the current owner of a green string, I concur. The string in question had been in my viola case for (ahem) 16 years as I was experimenting with different C strings and found out to my peril that one I hated and one had no durability to it and I lost it just before a concert. I pulled out my spares to find that one was a "used spare" and didn't look in any condition to go again and I cannot fathom why I kept it, and the other, a Dominant still in the packet, was shades of green and black. The others which come from the same packet are still visually fine, so unless it's been around the block for quite some years it doesn't really matter if it's "fresh" or not.