Screeching Gut E String

In general you will have to bow closer to the bridge than you normally would, or at the very least not be tasto-ey. The ideal contact point and bow technique for gut strings could very well be someone like Zukerman, (which is ironic because he is probably the last person to play on gut..). Lots of starting the bow stroke on the string especially as a newcomer, and closer to the bridge. People love to talk about how gut strings offer more color and while it's true, it can also be quite misleading because it depends on what your definition of color is.

Gut strings in and of themselves provide more upper overtones than synthetic strings, meaning that the sound will be much more interesting or 'colorful' if you will. On the other hand, the extreme difficulty/impossibility of simultaneously playing with a healthy sound and at the fingerboard, means that you won't get as much access to the those kinds of sounds which means your variance in contact point 'color' is going to be more limited.

The point of that entire last paragraph is basically to say that if you are trying to attain color through a tasto or even slightly tasto contact point (even in p!), you will get nothing but screeches. You will have to somewhat counterintuitively play with much more juice, and less stereotypically baroquey at first. Good luck!

It's worth noting that up to about the end of the 19th century all violinists (and violists and cellists) used gut strings, including the E. As late as post-WW1, there was a major German orchestra (Berlin Phil?) that did not allow their violins to use the steel E (which was by then in fairly common use) because doing so would have upset the tonal balance.

Gut Es are very finnicky, and small changes in gauge make a huge difference.
Personally I play on baroque style gut, but I absolutely can't stand the feel or sound of gut E strings. I stick a steel E on instead.

It is the A and D where I get ugly noises that I have to be very careful to avoid. (The G is spun with aluminum and is ok though not great on my instrument). I anticipate going back to the good old Eudoxas or (if I need more projection) Passiones. But if it is realistic I would dearly like to keep using a gut E.

BTW I also see the E (and the A) beginning to fray at the contact point. This worries me a bit. How long can one expect a gut E to last? How likely is it to break in mid-rehearsal or mid-performance?

I should probably add that my violin is an ordinary violin (built 1918), nothing baroque about it.

* The pandemic forces me to play alone at all times; if I had regular rehearsals to go to I would not take this kind of risk with a set of strings.

Chorda is the shortest-lived of any string I have tried. You can potentially extend its life by periodically (every 1 to 2 weeks maybe) moistening the string with almond or walnut oil, and washing your hands often. You have to wipe off the excess, of course, as to not soil your bow. Nonetheless gut E strings will always break quickly, because they're operating at pretty much the maximum tension that the material can withstand at such small diametres.

Is the Chorda G not silvered copper? I can't imagine them having changed the formula. Anyways, I find Aquila to last significantly longer than other gut strings, in case you're looking to try something new.

I guess I keep using walnut oil for salad...