As you may know i have brought a violin and am starting lessons v. soon!

I just need some advice on the actual strings of the violin.

My violin is a chinese instrument and the strings and bridge are the ones supplied with the instrument.

A string player friend (cello) told me i should replace these items with better ones straight away

Is this true? if so why?

What strings/ bridge would be recommeded?

Thankyou for your help yet again!

It is generally a good idea to replace your strings as the ones supplied with the instrument will generally be sub-standard and by replacing the strings you'll probably improve the sound of the instrument. I would suggest Thomastik Dominants, on musicroom.com you can get them for £34.95 but I'm sure I've seen them for cheaper.

Bridge-wise, I'm not too sure what to suggest. It would be a wise idea for your teacher to look at it and see if it needs to be changed.

Thanks,

Have been looking on the net and seen 2 sets of dominant and some dominant rosin for £46.95.

Is this a good offer?

Beare's mail order have cheap strings and they arrived next day for me. I would stay well awway from Dominant E strings, well Dominant altogether actually, but especially the E, it does make you sound worse than you are! Maybe try a Goldbrokat E - I have had one on for a few months and honestly, I cannot fault it. And it's cheap!!

Dominants aren't too bad though, granted the E string isn't that great, but overall I think they're good value for money, as they made my violin sound lovely, improved the tone considerably compared to other strings.

Thanks will try Beare's mail order.

Bohemian what strings would you suggest apart from dominants? Not just e. will look at those e strings though.

Is it best to let my teacher or music shop put the strings on or shall i give it a bash myself?

I think Pirastro are rather nice, most of my friends use them now. There are loads of different types - I personally use Eudoxa, but they're gut so maybe not. Gut strings stretch lots, so they go out of tune often - Eudoxa and Oliv are both gut. Otherwise, Obligato are very popular, so are Evah's. Either of those would be fine, I should think.

Well, let's have some sense here. First, the strings that Bohemian suggests are strings suitable for Bohemian's level of playing - they shouldn't be used with adjusters for a start, and they cost almost as much as a basic student violin! Evahs are very bright and probably won't suit such a violin at all anyway.

Dominants, I find, don't work all that well on cheap Chinese violins. Corelli Crystals work well on such violins, toning the violin down and making it sound like a rather better instrument, pro-artes are another possibility. I'd feel strongly inclined, though, to leave it until the teacher suggests a change.

As for the bridge, getting a new bridge fitted is likely to cost half as much as a cheap student violin and it's entirely possible that you won't even need it - the great majority of cheap violins these days are immediately playable. Again, I'd wait and see what the teacher suggests.

Liz

Thanks,

I've got my first lesson on Saturday. Can't wait.

I'll ask the teacher about strings just hope it is possible to play my violin with the chinese strings in the lesson!

Of course it will be possible, unless you've bought something totally unplayable which is unlikely these days.

liz

Depends what you want the touch and the quality of the sound to be....
if you like soft sounds, I reckon you to go for Violino, Obligato is the medium tension and Evah Parazzi (sp?) is the trictest tension....
And yes, Dominant strings are good for beginners right up to semi-pofessional level, but the extreme you'll need to go for something like Pirastro or Larsen...

It will be going back to the shop if i have!

I didn't buy the cheapest the violin outfit was £130 they also sold one for £80 but the man in the shop told me they weren't up to much and the violin i have brought would last much longer.

My violin is a "Vivaldi" apprantely a small workshop in china. I am told it has Ebony fittings (Pegs, fingerboard etc.) Is this good or does it not make a difference?

Can't wait til my lesson have been geting the violin out of its case everyday and trying to play a little. I can get it quite nicely in tune (open strings and first position) i use a tuner to make sure of this. This is playing pizzicato though i can't play with the bow hardly at all it just makes a really soft sound that a mouse couldn't hear!!!!

Seen string players with tape on the fingerboard is there any need for this?

Some people use them, some don't. I see that you've musical background. If you do have tapes, you'll probably have them for awhile before they come off since you'd probably pick up the sounds pretty fast. That's an advantage of learning other instruments I suppose. I have a Chinese violin too and I hate the E string. They're all Dominants. Someone suggested a soft Hill E string, is it advisable? How does it sound like? Will it be compatible with my other Dominants?

My violin's a reasonable one, but Dominant E was horrible on it. I got a few suggestions on here and ended up with a Hill soft E and it's wonderful it makes a huge difference - I still don't sound amazing on the E string, but that's my fault not my violin's - and goes just fine with my dominant GDA

I'm gonna ask my teacher about this set up...

And the others suggested i guess a lot of its personal prefrence though so when i get better at playing the violin i'll try a few different makes myself!

The plain Dominant E string is somewhat notorious.

Ebony fittings are generally a good thing, at least compared to painted hardwood. There's lots of different qualities of ebony though.

Put more rosin on that bow! I'm serious. The hair has to turn WHITE. (You have tightened it up, I assume?)

Liz

Yes have tightened it up! When i put back in case i always slacken it off though hope this don't ware it out!

Its not white will have to put some more rosin on i thought i'd put enough on as the first time i took it out the case i "rosined" the bow for 10 mins and i put one sweep on when i get the bow out to play. certainly not white though!

Thanks

It can easily take half an hour if you're using a new bow with greasy hair and new rosin. Start at the frog and really dig in hard. Work gradually up the bow. You'll know it's beginning to work because it will FEEL different - rather than sliding around on the rosin it will feel as if it's gripping. Then you need to get that feel all the way along the bow - and the hair turning white all the way along.

Looks like alot of people suggest the soft Hill E. What is the different between soft, medium and hard? Mine are medium Dominants I think.

Been putting rosin on for ages about 40 mins now and is still sliding about!!! Any tips?

Is it a brand new cake of rosin too? If so, you'll have to wait for the bow to get enough rosin on and the cake to build up some friction before it stops sliding around so much. Just keep checking the hair and when it's nice and white, give it a go on the violin. If you've got loads of rosin on, expect it to build up as a white layer around the bridge area of the violin - some people think this looks really cool because it shows they've been playing loads - but the damage it does to the varnish and also, in extreme cases, to the sound, is horrible so make sure you clean it off after every practise session if it appears.

Good luck!

Allan

Is the top of the rosin still shiny?

Yep its new rosin and yea its still shiny! Am i ever gonna get enough on my bow i want it to be right for tomorrow for my lesson so i can atually atempt to play the thing!!

If the hair is white and the top of the rosin looks a bit matt, then you're doing fine. If the rosin is still really shiny, it may well be that it is one of those really cheap cakes of rosin that you can't chop your way through with an axe, in which case you have two options 1) buy a new cake of decent rosin (you can't go wrong with Pirastro Goldflex in my opinion - I seem to remember it costing about 7 GBP last time I bought it in England, it's a good all round rosin for violin) or 2) gently rub the top of the rosin cake with a piece of sandpaper or cheap paper nailfile just to get rid of the shiny top, the rosin and bow will grip more after that.

Having written all of that, I must say that if it is generic freebie rosin, even if you sand it you'll probably need to change it because it generally doesn't stick enough and, even with a cake of good rosin, I still like to gently sand the top before using it - saves a lot of time in the long run!

In any case, don't worry too much about your lesson, if your teacher thinks there isn't enough rosin on the bow (s)he will point this out and may even put some more on for you.

Enjoy your lesson!

put some sandpaper on the rosin as was in lunchbreak and couldn't get toi music shop yes its one of the freebee rosin but neverthe less the sandpaper works and my violiin with the bow sounds like a violin yay! for the sake of £7 though i might as wel get some new rosin!