Vision titanium solo, life expectancy.

November 7, 2014 at 08:51 PM · I had a similar experience with Vision Titanium Solos a couple of years ago, and had same sort of thing with other synthetics. I think it is inherent in the construction of strings comprising a synthetic core, an outer wound covering (typically aluminum, but sometimes silver), and between them one or more interface layers of other materials (I don't know specifically what those are). With playing, this interface will inevitably break down, and the tone will start to deteriorate both in quality and volume, which is a little irritating when visually the outer covering has apparently kept its integrity.

I imagine part of the skill in designing and manufacturing such strings lies in making an interface that is stable for as long as possible. This may well put up the cost.

As far as I am aware there are no published comparisons of string lives across the brands enabling a violinist to select for example a very powerful solo string but with the knowledge that its tonal life would be limited to four weeks. At the moment the evidence for string life is anecdotal. Perhaps laboratory test rigs could be devised to enable useful standardized string life comparisons.

On a personal note, it was this lack of longevity in synthetics that was one of several factors that turned me towards plain gut (primarily the A and D), which happily retain most of their tone and playability until they are almost due to break. For me, a good indication that the string is near the end of its life is the onset of excessive hairiness in the fingerboard area. Can't do anything about the covered gut G, wonderful though its tone is - you'd only be using a fat plain gut G if you were seriously into pre-Baroque.

November 8, 2014 at 08:59 AM · I'm on a set of Titanium Solos at the moment, they're about a month old. They're my first set that aren't Dominants, so a lot of my experience with the Titanium Solos would be compared to how Dominants would usually fare.

As for as longevity, they seem to be faring a lot better than Dominants, especially the A and D strings. I haven't had issues with a Dominant G's outer winding separating so much, but by about the 3rd or 2nd month on Dominants, the Aluminum D and A's outer wind would be separated enough that the coils would be apparent to the touch and the risk of finally ruining the outer wind with a careless shift is very much possible, this is mostly the case for the Dominant A.

As of now, a month into the Titanium Solos, the A's outer wind has not separated as bad. Visually, it has lost most of it's shine but the separations on the outer wound doesn't bother me much for breakage. The G and D however, hasn't changed much visually, the E still hasn't rusted or gone black. While I've read reviews on websites and threads here that it could last at least 4 or 5 months, I'm worried that it might not be the for me since I have sweaty hands.

Sound wise, it might be a constant for every string set to sound extra brilliant and resonant for the first few days, but how it'll behave after settling looks to be a good time for evaluating the particular set on any instrument, since replacing strings every week is unpractical for most of us anyway. Compared to Dominants, the Titanium Solos certainly plateaus on a sound that is focused and clean, an indication for me that a lot of "fizz" has gone by around two weeks, as for now, they're still very clear and responsive. While for the same time as Dominants, they still do remain their warmth and volume, it doesn't take much playing time to wear it out to a situation where it sounds pale and the strings feel not as taut as before.

I'm enjoying the Titanium Solos for the things people said to be their selling point.

December 4, 2014 at 08:23 PM · I find that Thomastic PI's are quite false sounding after about 80-100 hours of playing on them. This means that they only last about 6 or 7 weeks before I think they might need changing, and at around 8 weeks I'm really getting fed up with them.

I do find Dominants last longer and sound better even at 12 weeks and about 160 hours of use. (I only use Dominants for D and G, with a Warchal Russian A with Goldbrokat E - this works well on my fiddle).

P S I do think we need to talk in terms of how many playing hours, as some players may play 28 hours a week whilst others like me may only do 14 plus hours or so. So eight weeks at 28 hours = 224 hours whilst 14 hours a week for 8 weeks = 112 hours.

December 4, 2014 at 10:43 PM · I play about two hours a day on average. The Vision Titanium Solo seem to last me, on average, about 6 months. They invariably go dead very suddenly, around the end of the sixth month, and the sound becomes intolerable. I used to play on wound gut strings, Eudoxas, until about 15 years ago. It seems to me that they lasted much longer. Could this be true? Perhaps I wasn't so particular back then, or maybe my ear has improved, which is unlikely.