Strings diameter

May 1, 2017 at 06:15 PM · Generally, thicker, more core, more tension, "darker"/warmer.

Lighter, less core, less tension, brighter.

For synthetics, many thick offerings tend to be too heavy, kp-wise. Some violins or players handle this well-I don't love it, unless it's a violin's E.

Going too light may result in some cases in a much too brittle tone. However, I prefer light tensions over thick for violins (not sure about what works for viola.)

Eudoxa gut core are different, as they are not too tight even at their thickest. For them, I would prefer thicker to thickest gauge.

Oliv and Passione are easy on the fingers, but tighter than Eudoxa, so I wouldn't use thickest with either.

If your violin's tone is a bit too bright, and it plays well, thicker strings are fine. If it's too warm, maybe a brighter string could be better.

My opinion, of course-no need to share them with me. Some people also like to make bright brighter, and dark darker. No wrong solution unless it impairs the musical message.

Some medium synthetics are tight enough that only a weich alternative feels and plays better for some players/violins.

As I thought, I didn't answer your question, but perhaps even confused you further. Hope you eventually find the solution you seek.

May 1, 2017 at 06:22 PM · The thickest string on a violin I know is the g string.

You can only compare inside a string type (like Pi or ep or one of the other douzends) as different strings got completly different cores.

To add to the list from Adalberto: A thicker string brings more mass and therefore changes the response. You need a better bow/bowing technic to keep it responding the same way.

May 1, 2017 at 10:29 PM · The thickest strings are pure gut in the heaviest gauge, thinnest is pure metal ones good for fiddlers.

Thicker strings need more weight from the right arm to speak and are trickier to maintaining a consistent sound, especially bow changes (if the string is very thick gut).

Also, tension affects how a giolin responds. Violins with thicker plates need thicker strings to speak, and the general rule of thicker = louder will become thicker = choked if the instrumemt needs a thinner gauge.

This gauge also affects string balance, one incorrect gauge will have varying effect on the other strings too (usually most change when you swap a steel E or any type of G string).

May 1, 2017 at 10:35 PM · Witch are the thickest synthetic strings brand you know in the market ?

May 2, 2017 at 02:54 AM · My gauges of Aquila pure gut strings, they are the only gut string maker that makes them to the thickest historically accurate gauge, as follows:

E- 0.75

A- 0.90

D- 1.20

G- 1.07

Note that these are averaged approximations that work well for violin string scaling playability purposes, since strings end up thinner or thicker (back in the day, players would hand-pick out the thickness of each string from pre-made batches of gut). Also, the E A and D are two strings, so you cut them exactly in half first (60 cm each). :)

You can order them from Aquila Chorda (order form for historic strings), or aquilausa.com (e-mail Curtis, saying you want the heaviest historic gauge for violin).

Also, you will need to have the bridge and nut slots widened to not pinch the much thicker gut, and use pencil in the notches before tuning up little by little (and lifting off the string a bit a few times each time to distribute the tension evenly).

And, learn how to tie the knots for guts. Video here for E (and A, if wanted):

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DuqFwa25Cazs&ved=0ahUKEwiT3PSImtDTAhWj7IMKHZ72Ae8QwqsBCB4wAA&usg=AFQjCNFfSBYWkcKPDHdl0lXxPawQxdY17A&sig2=CzsiGkvOjX1Y_Hp5qlUisw

The D and G are thicker, so you can just make one loop knot to use as a ball in the tailpiece.

May 2, 2017 at 11:17 AM · We are speaking about two quite different things. Diamter and mass. There is a lot of confusion, since the term ‘’gauge’’ has been used even by stringmakers for expressing the tension level (mass) in fact. From the purely linguistic point of view, a gauge means diameter. But in musical and stringmaking jargon a gauge means mass in fact mostly.

Mass is the only parameter that correlates with the tension (and therefore with the projection versus response ratio). There is a very wide range of materials used in string production. This is why you can hardly (better say never) guess the mass from the diameter (gauge) visually, or even by using a calliper.

Firstly, as for the core, we have gut, nylon and steel. The density ratio between nylon and steel is almost 1:7. Then, there are windings in the string formula, where metals from aluminium 2,7 kg (or even hydronalium that is even lighter) use to be applied up to silver 10.5 kg and tungsten 19.6 kg. This is really a wide spectrum. This is why some silver D synthetic core strings are even a bit thinner than synthetic core A strings. This is also, why an aluminium D string is much thicker than the silver one although being mostly less tension that a silver one.

So, theoretically we can have two pretty different strings with diameters say 0.6 and 1.2 mm, where the 0,6 will be “heavier” (more mass, more tension) than the other one.