Evahs or Visions? What to choose....

March 9, 2007 at 07:02 PM · In my experience Evah's are louder with more "voice" and Visions are brighter and more brilliant to the point of being metallic. This is only my own experience on my old French fiddle.

I think the only way to tell is to simply experiment. We can generalize about strings but when you actually put a specific set of strings on a particular fiddle and use a certain bow and rosin the results can be quite surprising. They may work...they may not.

March 9, 2007 at 09:26 PM · I know there are players who swear by the Visions. When I put them on my fiddle, I liked them okay for one week and then they went sour.

March 9, 2007 at 08:27 PM · Ian - your question is best addressed to your luthier rather than us. All strings sound different on different violins. Your luthier can hear your violin with whatever strings you have on it and, in light of whatever tone you are trying to acheive, advise as to the best strings to do that. Maybe neither Evahs or Visions. We cannot hear your violin and are not in a good position to advise. You will receive a great deal of well-meaning advice from us that will be essentially useless to you. Sorry.

March 9, 2007 at 08:44 PM · Thank you all for your responses. They are greatly appriciated. I'm asking tho in general terms of sound, but also reliability and life-span. I have been using visions for quite a while now and find that they go false very quickly. They lose their bite in about 6-8 weeks. I'm in the process of testing out evahs on my violin now.

Ian

March 9, 2007 at 09:22 PM · I tried the Evahs last week and took them off three days later. Back to Obligatos which, for this violin, sound best.

March 9, 2007 at 09:32 PM · Currently, I have the obligatos on my violin. The sound is to.. heavy and wide and round for my violin. The A string is also so slow to respond that I cant play fast broken sequences on it (a - c - b - d) such as in mozart violin concertos. I do like the sound, but its just not the right sound.

March 9, 2007 at 10:06 PM · i had a bad experience with visions and probably won't use them again, unless they are free : ).

at first i was struck by how bright the strings are, with really good feel and response. it opened up my darker violin quite a bit, something i wasn't used to but got used to. plus the pitches set really quickly and i wasted no time retuning and all that.

however! one week later, the A string broke. snapped. i've never popped an A string before, only Es! so random. so so random. plus the rest of the strings lost their responsive and bright qualities a week or two after i first put them on.

another note, my fiddle did NOT appreciate the tension set by the medium gauge visions (buzzing, whistling...etc). i've stuck to other medium gauge sets (evahs, obligatos) - none has given me such a headache, but this is for my violin...so good luck!

March 9, 2007 at 11:12 PM · On my violin the Pirazzis were quite loud and had a nice tone, but they seemed a little harsh at times. The A started to unravel after a month so I switched back to dominants, but I may try obligatos in a few months for my next set because I really liked them on my old violin.

March 10, 2007 at 08:25 AM · visions at first made my violin sound... somewhat... artificial? but after a while i don't know if i got used to it or something but they sounded better

March 10, 2007 at 03:07 PM · Ian,

As always with Visions, clarification is needed: There are three types- Vision reg, Vision titanium Solo, and Vision titanium orchestra. They are all quite different.

Since we don't know which you have tried, there is no way to comment.

March 10, 2007 at 04:29 PM · IVe tried both the regular and titanium solos. I dont particularly like the titaniums, i think that the regulars sound much better then them. My main problem w/ the visions is that they go false so quickly and the gstring lacks clarity.

March 10, 2007 at 07:21 PM · Personally, Visions aren't for me. They, as many of you said, go bad in few weeks. For me, Evah was great except I don't like synthetic core and steel. To be freed of stress: JUST USE GUT CORE. They are awesome. I just love the warm and full sound they produce and many argue that they have slow response, go out of tune, blah blah blah. But out of tune problem? Not that big. It's only the first few days, also, if you can't tune, why are you playing violin? So, I think you should try gut strings...start out with the cheaper one to see if you like it...Kaplan...(not the solo one...it's too brilliant) then, get Eudoxa or Oliv. GREAT strings...but between Evah and Vision...Definitely EVAH...

March 10, 2007 at 10:21 PM · I agree with Jamie. Have you tried plain gut yet? Also Eudoxas or Gold Label Pirastro are good strings. For synthetics Evah Pirazzis are better. High up on the a-string Pirazzis are a little weak IMO.

March 11, 2007 at 04:32 AM · Interesting. I've had the opposite experience with the Visions. The Vision and Vision Titaniums seem to last me quite a long time.

And a concertmaster that I know of who is obsessive about strings swears by the Vision G string (and the Dominant A string).

I have the Visions on a Kelvin Scott violin and the G string is awesome. *But* the choice of E string seemed to make a difference. With the Vision E, the G strings was good (this violin has a great G string) but with a Larsen E string, the G string is incredible. Definitely focused, clear, and powerful.

- Ray

March 12, 2007 at 03:42 AM · I currently have Vision G and D, Chromocor A and Jargar forte e on my violin. The Visions match very well with this set. Evahs are too high tension on this high action violin and they are fatter in width than the Thomastik strings. I notice in general Pirastro strings are fatter/wider. So I guess it all depends.

I put the used Evahs on my low-tension low-action fiddle and like it very much. Of course I have not tried Visions on them. I've pretty much decided that I'm not that attached to any particular string. In general I like Infeld Blue G, D, A and Jargar forte e. But I'll take anything, Vision, Evah, Infeld Blue. They tend to last longer than Dominants who get fuzzy and dull, at least on my violins. So I put my used Dominants on my cheapest violins and leave it at that. I do like the Melange heavy e string that came with the promotional packets of Visions. That's about the best e-string Thomastik manufactures, because I find the Vision e and Dominant e lacking.

December 24, 2007 at 07:44 PM · I have found that one of the best ways to learn is to repeat something. "OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OLIV, OOOOLLLLIIIIVVVV."

December 24, 2007 at 08:50 PM · Just noticed while practicing last night that a few notes on my Obligatos are a tad fuzzy. They've been on there about 5 months. Could that be the string or my imagination?

December 24, 2007 at 10:32 PM · I like Evah's on G/D, and Thomastik on A/E

December 27, 2007 at 09:17 AM · Evahs are pretty cool, i tried them and they did the job well. But Vision...well actually which vision strings. I have stuck to Vision Titanium Solo on my violin and they are AMAZING...the power and response that I get from vision is more than gratifying. But like you, I didn't care much for the E string and I'm still looking but I currently have a Wondertone Solo E...it's pretty cool!

December 27, 2007 at 05:02 PM · vision

December 27, 2007 at 05:06 PM · IMO Pirazzi's are horrible on any violin I have played them on, including a del Gesú, a Guad and a Testore.

Just loud without colour and with little projection even though they are very loud under the ear.

I prefer Dominant to Vision but two Vision versions are good IMO: Vision Heavy and Vision Solo

December 28, 2007 at 02:54 AM · What about Vision Titanium Orchestra, which are purported to be warmer and with more undertones than Vision Titanium Solo, but similar to Titanium Solos for responsiveness, a sense of brilliance, and projection. They also come in medium, heavy and light.

December 28, 2007 at 02:31 AM · I have noticed that evahs sound really great on some violins, but choke the sound out of others. It is hard to beat this string if your violin reacts well to it. When it works this string is warm, still has a lot of bite, is thick and powerful. I like the whole set on one of my violins, and cannot use them at all on the other.

December 28, 2007 at 10:34 PM · I used Evahs on my last set which really woke up the sound on my violin but were sometimes difficult to play cleanly. I switched to Vision Titanium Solo and they seemed to have all the punch of the Evahs but were more responsive with less grittiness. When I changed the E to a Westminster the E gained a nice clear silvery sound and all of the strings had an added shimmer. Great combination for my violin! Doubt I'll ever go back to Evahs.

January 8, 2008 at 04:12 AM · Can your luthier who sold your violin tell you much about which strings to use?

January 8, 2008 at 04:50 PM · Perhaps it is more of a personal choice as to what you like on your fiddle?

Some fiddles sound better with Pirazzi and some with Visions. I noticed that the Pirazzi A string does not last more than 2 weeks (starts unraveling at the nut).

January 8, 2008 at 09:50 PM · Ray Randall,

I have Obligatos, as well. They've been on my violin for about 7 months and have been needing to be replaced for about 2 months. I loved them the first few months I had them, especially. Perhaps it is simply time to replace your string(s).