Pirastro Announces New Violin Strings: Evah Pirazzi Neo
Today Pirastro announced its newest violin string set: Evah Pirazzi Neo, developed in close collaboration with Dutch violin superstar Janine Jansen.
Violinist Janine Jansen, image by Marco Borggreve. and the packaging for Pirastro's new Evah Pirazzi Neo Violin Strings.
The strings, which should be available in stores and for online purchase in late June or early July, were developed to offer power and volume in their low frequencies, brilliance and focus across the entire sound spectrum and a simple and direct response, Pirastro said in a statement. The price should be similar to the Evah Pirazzi green set with the gold-plated E, which currently retails in the U.S. for about $120.
"The new Evah Pirazzi Neo strings...give an optimal balance between stability, flexibility, power, warmth and core," Jansen said. The Neos have an "excellent malleable sound, big, powerful, centered, noble and luminous. The strings stay in tune incredibly quickly, are very easy to work with from the start and feel extremely comfortable under the fingers."
When developing new strings for orchestral string instruments, personal contact and intellectual exchange with musicians play a very important role, said Pirastro. In this case, it even helped them explore new ways of manufacturing the strings.
“Asking the musician what they are looking for always comes first when developing a new string set," said Adrian Müller, Technical Director at Pirastro GmbH, which is headquartered in Offenbach, near Frankfurt, Germany. "The intensive collaboration with violinist Janine Jansen led us to implement a new manufacturing process."
"Evah Pirazzi Neo is a synthetic core string engineered to have exceptional tuning stability and therefore is ready to play immediately after installation," Müller said. "Its particular construction and carefully chosen materials generate a high carrying capacity and projection. This is notably supported by a unique E-string whose special gold coating provides depth and brilliance to the entire set. With extra support from technical measurements and analyses, we constructed the Evah Pirazzi Neo violin strings to have a distinctive overtone spectrum with strong fundamentals, resulting in an overall clear and powerful sound. Most importantly, we did not need to increase the tension of the individual strings to accomplish any of this."
The Evah Pirazzi Neo set for violin is available in medium tension, including:
- E-string Goldsteel with a removable ball end in gauge 26.8
- A-string Synthetic/Aluminum
- D-string Synthetic/Silver
- G-string Synthetic/Silver
The set comes in Pirastro's new recyclable cardboard set packaging.
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Replies
The two things I’ve experienced with the existing Evah strings and heard from many others is that 1. they are tough on the fingers (looks like they have addressed this with “Neo”) and 2. They have a relatively shorter useful life than other strings. I would really like to hear some reviews that address this issue.
I am always leery of new strings. They may work well for Jansen, but I wonder for most of the rest of us mortals whether they really make any difference. I have never liked Evahs for the reasons Jane mentions.
When I got my 15.5 viola, it had Evahs because the viola people at luthier and the luthier thought they would give the small viola more "punch." I asked them to put on something else, and they suggested Obligatos. I told them I would like something in between, so they put on Visions. That turned out to be an inspired choice although not one that would readily occur to anyone. Go figure.
Pirastro Perpetual were also the new modern Evah Pirazzi that were supposed to be better at everything. Yet, most people keep buying the greens.
This time they kept the name Evah Pirazzi, lets see if it works.
Thank you for sharing!
Strings are so incredibly individual, not only to the player but to the instrument, and then you have all kinds of combinations of players and instruments! It's great we have so many good choices.
@Laurie - all true, but I wonder if we are getting to the point where we simply have too many choices and for most of us, it is no longer helpful to so many (and so expensive for many).
On my pension, I'm sticking to Tonicas for my two very different violas..
Cheaper, much longer lasting, and they let the wood breathe!
I might give them a try, especially if they come out with a viola version. I like G and D to be Evahs on my viola. Usually my violin has a set of Evahs but I just got a new instrument so I'm on the hunt for the right set of strings for this new instrument.
Daniel, have you tried the Evah Golds? Ed Mingo from Pirastro told me that, at least at this point, they do not have plans to do a viola version of the Neos because they are very happy with the Golds for viola.
Hi Laurie, did he tell you any more about how the sound is different from the other Evah variants, other than less string noise?
Andrew, no more than this story - they will be out in a he world in a few weeks and we can get feedback when people try them - !
Laurie, I have tried Golds and do like them for viola. I"m just open to trying the next thing.
Evah Pirazzi (2000): This set of strings is characterized by an overtone-rich, rather bright sound and a relatively strong background noise, which ensures carrying capacity, power and projection.
Evah Pirazzi Gold (2012): In contrast, these strings are designed to emphasize the warm, round and somewhat darker sound spectrum.
Evah Pirazzi Neo (2025): In this new development, the background noise of the original Evah Pirazzi is reduced while maintaining the strings’ full carrying capacity and power. Evah Pirazzi Neo is designed to combine effortless note and string transitions with easy response, tonal clarity and far-reaching projection.
I tend to prefer Thomastik strings due to the better longevity, but I'm willing to give the Evah Pirazzi Neo a try.
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June 17, 2025 at 07:12 PM · Looks very interesting but except for reduced background noise, I can't really tell how these play or sound different from the other Evah Pirazzi variations.