Hello everyone
I hope this topic hasn't already been discussed - I've had a search of the forums and couldn't find any answers to my question. I've just bought a Stentor Student 1 violin to start out on, and even though I know this isn't the best violin, I want to make absloutely sure that I'm going to continue studying it before investing in a more expensive model. I've heard that the strings that come with the violin are pretty awful and I was just wondering if anyone could advise me of a suitable string that would help to improve the tone of the violin without costing the earth?!
Thanks, flutediva

Try Thomastik 'Dominant' strings.

They won't break the bank to buy, but will deliver a very decent tone.

Others will have their own opinions on this forum, but Dominant do have a fairly wide appeal to players at all levels - beginners to professional.

I agree, when i used to have a stentor II i put dominant strings on and it sounded much better!

Thank you both for your suggestions I will definitely look at the Dominant strings since I do want my violin to sound at least bearable!! How much should I expect to pay for them? (if you don't mind me asking..)

£23.50 or £26 from stringzone

That's a fair bit cheaper than they are in my local music shop, I think my last set were £34. Hopefully someone else can help with the difference between the steel and wound E as I haven't a clue!

Thanks - that doesn't seem hugely expensive - after all I've heard they'll last about 1 year By the way, with my violin (which has a wittner style tailpiece) will I need loop end or ball end e-strings? (I haven't got a clue to be brutally honest )

Ditto the others re: trying Dominants. Only thing I don't like about Dominants is the E string which goes very quickly. I've currently got Dominants plus Obligato E string and I'm happy with that for now (would change all the strings to Obligatos but they are expensive compared to Dominants). Have a look at what the current E string looks like, if it has something on the end of the string that resembles a metal doughnut, that's a ball end, a loop end is just that.

You can have either...not really sure of the pros and cons of the two but I've always had ball end...loops seem a bit more complicated to me. How long they last depends how much you play, I change mine every 6 months and although I can't always tell the strings are getting old, when I put new ones on the difference is phenomenal.

Thanks again everyone for your helpful replies I had a look on ebay and found a set for £19.80 from the USA which were brand new, with free international shipping, but I'm not sure if it would be better to get them from an actual shop. Any thoughts?

Well watch out for postage, returns policy etc...as I said above, my last set from an "actual shop" were £34, I think you can do much better than that on the internet.

I tnen to buy strings from the States - a lot cheaper, even including p&p. If you shop around, you can get Evahs and Obs for less than £30. The deal you've found is pretty good for Dominants - internet sellers in the UK charge around £22.

I swear this was me writing!! I've just done the exact same thing - bought a Stentor Student 1 violin for the same reasons as you! When did you buy yours and how are you getting on? I got mine on Sunday! I can kind of play Twinkle Twinkle, but it sounds very bad!!

What's the resin/rosin like that you got free with the violin? I'm finding that I need to keep 'applying' mine every 10-15 mins of playing, and I know this can't be right!! I don't know if I'm putting it on wrong, or not putting enough on, or what!!

Good luck with learning

Woah, that's really weird - and we've both just finished year 11! Well, I ordered my violin from Normans website and it's on its way so I expect I'll have it by tomorrow or Thursday. I've played a violin before and it took me about 5 minutes to do Twinkle, and after 2 weeks I could play grade 3 pieces, but not particularly well of course!! I'm going to use the Suzuki books, just to get me started, and then I hope to get a teacher after the summer, but that all depends on how much time I've got. How about you? By the way, I'd reccommend you buy another rosin like Hidersine brand (£2) since the free rosin isn't great quality. You sound like you're doing really well though

Oh wow that's really cool - how did the GCSE's go? (sorry, that's off topic!!).

Cool sounds like your good at the violin - seems like fast progress!! I doubt I'll make much progress to be honest because I'm not allowed a teacher at the moment But at the end of the year I should be learning to drive, and I should be getting a job so maybe I can get lessons then!

At the moment I'm using a book called Strings in Step to start me off! Have worked through section 1 which I'm quite pleased about because it says 'Should take children about 10 weeks to do each section' or something

Do you know if normal music stores sell the rosin? And how much would it be, do you know? Because I kind of used up all my money on the violin haha!!

Laura

Yep you can get rosin in normal music stores, should be less than £5. good luck both of you!

Ooh that's great, thanks!!

Well I got my violin on Wednesday, right after my last exam which was nice . I really like it and it stays in tune well, which is a major bonus because I'm terrified of snapping strings!! I think that the bridge might be slightly out of line though, because it was shipped with the strings de-tuned and when I brought the strings back up to pitch the bridge is a bit further over towards the G-string and also slightly at an angle rather than parallel to the fingerboard. I haven't done anything about it yet, because I'm not sure if it's a wise idea to de-tune the strings and then line it up myself? I just wondered if anyone has any suggestions, and whether I would be better off taking it to my local violin shop. Thanks

Yes, most definitely get the bridge checked up! And ask them how to check it yourself for when you next change your strings.

I think I've managed to sort it out, but I'll definitely keep an eye on it. I loosened the strings enough for me to be able to gently push the bridge into the right position but so the strings kept it in place, and then I brought the strings back up to pitch and so far, so good! Thanks for your reply

If you have a brand new bow you'll need to apply a LOT of rosin to start off with. Rub it in quite hard till the bow turns white, otherwise you'll have to keep reapplying it in the way you've noticed. Once a bow has been 'christened' with enough rosin then you won't have to reapply it anything like as often - perhaps just once every three times you take the violin out to play it.