I have just re-strung my 200-year-old violin with Dominants (with a Pirastro gold steel E) after having played on Helicores for the last few years. I know they are supposed to need some playing in, but they sound scratchy and totally unsatisfactory, so unlike my lovely smooth Helicores. In all my years of playing I have never used Dominants before. How long should I allow for them to be "played in" and, if I still don't like them, does anyone have any ideas about other strings that would give a smoother sound?

Edit: I should add that I don't mind about £££ - the sound is everything, and at the moment I don't have the sound and so don't even want to practice. Help!!

Hey Misterioso - they can take a week or two to settle on some instruments. I didn't like them on my old French fiddle and so replaced them with helicores which were much smoother sounding. I've recently changed to gut, which is gorgeous, but takes some getting used to after metal!

Give them a couple of weeks, if you still don't like them go back to your helicores, or if you're looking for more tonal complexity try the vision titanuims, the evah pirazzi or the obligato - better again, ask a luthier for advice on your particular fiddle.

If you're happy with helicores, though, why rock the boat?

Allan

Thanks Allan. I "rocked the boat" because some string-players on the forums thought helicores were a bit one-dimensional, so I decided to experiment to see if different strings would give me more "tonal complexity". (A case of "the grass is greener" etc!)

We don't have a luthier on the island, and won't be getting to the mainland for several months (or even longer, given the current storms making the ferries harbour-bound!) and in the meantime I have a practical assessment to do in around 10 weeks' time. Of the others that you suggest, which do you think are the smoothest-sounding, and the best for tone quality?

Well, helicores have a great sound, they are lacking in some tonal complexity I suppose - if you want a really beautiful sound, go for wound gut - Eudoxa or Olive are both beautiful and will soften and smooth out your fiddle, but will take some getting used to as the responses are different and so is tuning to begin with.

Of the synthetics, the Pirazzi have a big booming sound with lots of overtones, but they lack softness at times and if your instrument is already bright they can be deafening - if it's not bright, they'll work ok. Obligato is supposed to be the nearest synth to gut (but then isn't every new synth string they bring out supposed to be that too?! ) but I've used them before and liked them - although I found they died very quickly.

If your fiddle is bright and you want more softness, go for obligato or possibly some infeld red.

If it's not bright, then try the evahs or the visions.

If you want a beautiful sound and don't mind the hassles, go for gut (which feels really soft and lovely under the bow and fingers, but takes a bit of getting used to)

But before you do this, give your dominants time to settle - any new string will take a while to break in and as you're used to helicores which break in really quickly, it might be a bit wierd at first. See how they sound at the weekend, maybe?

Good luck with the evaluation!

Allan

What gut strings are you using? How do you find them? I tried some years ago and they frayed and fell apart immediately, but I remember growing up with gut strings and they were fine. Do you use them for Baroque playing or for everything? Please tell all!!!

I'm using would gut, not plain gut, so I'm a bit of cheat. I use Eudoxa with a helicore e and use them for playing Irish and Scottish trad - that took a bit of getting used to, mind you, trying to pull off a roll or a double cut on gut strings is really tricky! The sound is totally worth it though, they sound warm, rich and full of overtones. People who try my fiddle in sessions look confused and then hand it back (they're all used to synths or metal) but once you get past the slightly slower response time (and the fact that I'm using my fab new classical bow helps with that) - the sound truly is different.

I've found that once you get used to the break in tuning issues (in Sunday's session I had to retune after every two sets), they're relatively stable - at least as stable as synths, and give a lovely woody sound to the fiddle that sounds particularly gorgeous on slow airs. I'm being careful to wipe them down after each use though, as I have a tendency to eat through strings at a rate of knots (strings usually last me no more than two or three months).

I played some Bach today for fun and they sounded beautiful on that too, but I'm really pleased with the way they're sounding on the trad stuff - it's making me change the way I approach pieces - playing with less drive and more nuance and subtelty perhaps - a bit more swingy and lilting, I think. I like it!

I'm no expert but I read that Obligatos (Pirastro) were the nearest synthetic core string to a gut sound and I must admit I love them. I have them on a 100yr old fiddle and my 2yr old violin and both instruments sound warm and responsive.

I'm afraid I've never like Dominants - I find them harsh and scratchy on every instrument I've tried them on.

Thanks for that, Rosfrog. OK you mean wound gut; I thought you meant pure gut! I used to use Eudoxa for years, but gave them up and switched to Dominants because I got fed up with how unreliable Eudoxas were - they'd suddenly snap without warning, which was intolerable when I was doing a lot of performing! Dominants can be a bit harsh after a while, yes, but at least you get a warning when they're about to break...

Personally I like Dominants on my violin when the weather's warm and damp - to me they sound as good as any string I've ever used when the conditions are right. But perhaps I should give the old Eudoxas a whirl again to see if they've got any more reliable over the years. Thanks anyway.

A freind of mine switched from Evah Pirazzi to Eudoxa strings a while back and she's absolutely delighted with them.

In all honesty, the best place to obtain wound gut strings from is J & A Beares in London (via their mail order). I discovered a few years ago that they always keep fresh stock of gut strings, they never sell old stock (which will have dried out) which will be prone to breakage. Although having a spare set in your violin is handy, storing Eudoxa, Oliv or any gut string is just not possible, as they do have a limited shelf-life. Chances are that if a Eudoxa string suddenly snaps, it was probably an old string even before you purchased it.

I adore gut strings, but the tuning issues with them are sometimes just too much of a headache - leave a Eudoxa string unplayed for a few minutes and it will be sharp when you pick the instrument up to play again.

At one point I did opt for the Eudoxa Aricore A - a synthetic cored version of a Eudoxa A which, according to Pirastro, "fits perfectly in a set of gut strings". At least it allowed stability of the A, which is pretty much crucial in an orchestral setting.

Gut can also be fractionally slower to speak, whereas for me, Obligato has gut qualities in its tonal colour, but speaks faster.

A friend of mine felt the same after switching from Eudoxas to Pirazzis - which goes to show how it's all down to the individual and the violin!

Dominants are a good, all round string (apart from the E string) - I never had any problems with them and they do seem to last for ages! I'm currently using Pirazzi, which seem to have really opened up my violin (or maybe my playing's getting better! )

Anyone had any experience with Pirastro Passione? A bit out of my price range (and I wouldn't do justice to them at my standard) but reviews sound positive.