Introducing our guide to violin strings

July 21, 2006 at 9:11 PM

Our wonderful intern, Caeli Smith, has posted a new wiki to our Violin Help section:

The Violinist.com Guide to Choosing Violin Strings

Wondering which strings are the correct ones for your violin? Sorta, kinda happy with your strings, but wondering if there's something better out there? Caeli's guide will orient you to the possibilities and set you on your way to making the best choice.

And, as with all our help articles, it is a wiki, meaning that registered Violinist.com readers can log in and make additions to the page.

From Karin Lin
Posted on July 21, 2006 at 9:40 PM

Yay, Caeli! I think this will be an excellent resource. Seems to me that there are several major brands that could be added to the list, though. Perhaps I will do so, if I ever get around to figuring out how to edit a wiki. :)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on July 22, 2006 at 1:52 AM

I didn't know that Caeli was an intern. Please tell me more.

From Robert Niles
Posted on July 22, 2006 at 4:51 AM

http://www.violinist.com/blog/robert/20064/4912/

and

http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20066/5303/ (Announcement at the bottom of the piece.)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on July 22, 2006 at 6:32 AM

Thanks, Robert.

From Jamie Puffer
Posted on July 22, 2006 at 4:22 PM

Great article!!

If I could offer one suggestion: under gauge, maybe you could mention weich, mittel, and stark, and what they mean? That was the thing that confused me most when I first started learning about strings.

From Eric Godfrey
Posted on July 23, 2006 at 4:47 AM

The guide is very useful, and required an impressive amount of work to put together.

With all this information, there are bound to be some inaccuracies. The one I noticed right away is the final statement under "gut strings": "However, gut strings go out of tune very easily, are more sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, and are more expensive."

I use gut strings, and based on my experience this is wrong on all 3 counts. My bare gut strings (including a bare gut e) are more pitch-stable than my Eudoxas or Olivs have been. I have found them no more sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity (though perhaps they are if comparing steel strings). They are certainly no more expensive than the strings I replaced. This needs to be revised, and the differences between bare gut and wound gut pointed out.

From Laurie Niles
Posted on July 23, 2006 at 9:57 PM

It's a wiki, so if you see inaccuracies or want to add anything, you can edit it if you are logged in.

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