A school where I work has a number of violins (mostly half & three-quarter size) which have the most dreadful metal strings on them - probably been on there for years! Can anyone recommend a reasonable brand of string that would be suitable for these instruments (battered Stentors played by beginners) that could realistically be afforded on a very low budget?

W

If it's a really really low budget, Dogal green labels. If it's a bit higher, Pirastro Piranitos. Don't get anything cheaper than the Dogals though. Really not worth it.

K.

It's a difficult one isn't it? Rubbish violins, rubbish strings but parents who can't afford anything better...

On a cheerful note, a pupil broke a G-string in a lesson recently; I gave him my spare and he brought the full cost of the string in the following week - over £11 - paid for out of his paper round. He wouldn't have dreamt of asking his parents as they're just not supportive of his violin playing - not financially anyway.

I suggested we waited and he got a cheaper string but he wasn't interested - he wanted a good one. Bless him.

Dominant strings are available in small sizes. You can often shop around for a good deal and if you bulk buy several sets, I'm sure they'd offer a discount too.

The small strings are still pricey and parents can be very ambivalent about forking out money for extras when they're already paying for lessons; this includes the wealthier parents who can be surprisingly stingy at times when it comes to some of their children's extras. Perhaps it's because a new string is an invisible extra?

Value for money for school violins you can't beat Piranitos if you are buying new - however I have always tried to recycle as many used strings as possible and reuse strings I have replaced from my own and my childrens' instruments on school violins (after saving the last set taken off as emergency spares for us).

It's probably worth checking the setups of your school fiddles too - I've recently had to deal with a couple of bridges put on the wrong way round (one was even from a local violin shop!) - and soundpost position is probably worth checking too if they sound really vile and have been sitting in the music cupboard for a long time.

Have fun!!!!!

D'addario Prelude would be my choice.

Liz

I find this thread very interesting. The original post does not make it clear whether it is the school or the parents who have the small budget with which to buy the strings.

As a parent, with music-service-owned violin, I am very unsure about who is responsible for such things. It is never made clear whether "on-going maintenance" is part of the service or not.

As such, we recently bought a new E-string for my daughter's violin, as it was fraying where the bow crosses. I did consider buying a full set, as these are over a year old, but didn't "dare", in case it was frowned upon. BUT I could have justified the dent in family budget, if the peri teacher had asked for it.

You might find that a kindly letter to parents explaining the advantages of playing with better strings would be the stimulus to get them. It can be very frustrating when children are taught in school, as we never know anything about the lessons, and never get to see the teacher ourselves.

jellywobble,

It's great that there are parents like you out there. As a peri myself, I started off by talking to the parents and suggesting that they might like to replace broken strings with better quality strings (our music service did state that 'upkeep of the instrument, including replacing broken strings etc' was part of the parents' responsibility). However, I came across so many who insisted on finding cheaper strings than even the cheapest I would consider putting on, that I gave up. In fact I think I probably replaced most strings out of my own money if I couldn't persuade the school or music service to help.

Even recently, in a nice school, with a pupil who has her own violin, I ended up in an argument about strings. The girl had broken the E from a set of dominants. Since the rest of the strings were dominants and the parents had obviously paid for a decently set up violin, I assumed they'd be OK about buying a new dominant E. But no. They saw no reason at all why they should buy the string which I even provided for them - they just had to reimburse me - when they had seen a cheaper one for less than a pound.

This is maybe why many peris appear to have given up on contacting parents. A shame for the supportive parents though.

K.