More adventures with Infeld Reds

September 7, 2007 at 6:09 AM

I was so happy with the Infeld Reds I put on my violin1 (see my blog dated June 10, 2007) that I decided to try them on my violin 2. My violin 2 is a nice instrument made in Germany ca. 1900. It has a warm, sweet, well rounded tone on every single note. That’s why it’s my violin 2; its sound lacks personality. I was curious enough to find out how it would sound with Infeld Reds that I scraped up the money and bought a set of them. After I put them on my violin and started to play, I had a surprise: I felt like I had a new bow. I tried the various maneuvers I use for testing a new bow, and they all worked better with my “new bow.” Of course, the bow wasn’t new. The strings were just more responsive. Then I did a little test to see how much finger pressure I needed to stop the strings, and I found that I could use less pressure than I had in the past. The sound of the open E string didn’t thrill me as it did on violin 1, but all the fingered notes I played on the E string thrilled me. The G string sounded just a bit fuzzy, but not very bad. My favorite strings on this violin are the middle ones, A and D. They have a rich but clear sound. So my violin 2 does have more personality with the Infeld Reds. I still prefer violin 1, but I play violin 2 more often than I used to. It’s more fun with its new personality.