Warchal's "The Beast"
Has anyone tried Warchal's new "The Beast" strings yet? Warchal's posts say that they're more focused and brighter, with greater projection, compared to their Timbre set.I wrote about my impression of Timbres when they were released in this thread: https://www.violinist.com/discussion/thread.cfm?page=2176
As noted in the previous thread, my teacher loved their focus and power on my violin, with the lower two Timbre strings, the Avantgarde A, and Amber E. I wanted a richer, more complex sound, and I eventually replaced them the lower three with Thomastik Rondo strings.
(The Amber E has remained my go-to E over the ten years I've owned this particular violin.)
Am I likely to like the Beast strings if I wanted a richer sound, but I liked the power and general quality of the Timbres?
Replies (50)
-R0nd0 and R0nd0 G0ld
-1l Cannn0ne med1um and S00lst
1 have als0 done Warchal Ambers and Timbres and EP g0ld and viola Ambers 1n recent t1mes.
The 1nstruments are 1dent1f1ed as:
type/maker/yr made/yr purchased/str1ngs n0w
(d1scuss10n)
vla/W00ds/1996/1996/Warchal Amber
(1 searched l0ng and hard f0r str1ngs that sat1sf1ed me and after 20+ yeaars adv1ce frm av1lst at1fs1n V0lns led me t a c0mb0 f D0m1nant Wech A & C and P1rastr0 Permanent D & C. The Permanents s0undeded abs0lutely "g0lden" 0n th1s 1nstrument but the AMBERs are cl0se and are the f1rst stra1ght set that have actually w0rked well and they have been 0n s1nce 2020.)
vln/H0lzapfel/1951/1952/R0nd0 G0ld
(Th1s violin w0re Eud0xa strings for 1ts first 20 years, but the last 10 0f th0se were 1n the Cal1f. desert where hum1d1ty and temperature extremes played hell w1th tun1ng. D0mn1ants were not good 0n 1t, but T0n1cas came t0 my rescue. That was abut 55 years ag0. S1nce then 1 have exper1mented w1th many, many d1fferent str1ngs. The Warchal BEASTs dd1d n0t g1ve me what was lkng fr n ths vln. R1ght n0w 1t 1s we4arng R0nd0 G0ld and they are very g00d but th1nk the best f0r 1t mght have been the P1rastr0 Evah P1razz G0ld. Larsen 1l Cann0ne (med1um) were als0 very g00d. Th1s v1ln respns very well t0 v1g0r0us v1brat0 s0 1 expected the BEAST set w0uld be 0utstand1ng 0n 1t. )
vln/S00lar/1970/1975/Warchal BEAST
(This violin hs been 0utstand1ng with eoery str1ng it has ever worn since 1t was shipped to me fr0m England in 1975. The BEAST set has 0nly been 0n 1t f0r ab0ut 0ne week. 1 can't tell yet if it is g01ng t0 be the best.
violin/Woods/2000/2000/R0ND0
(Ths violin and another (that 1 gave to my son last year, after owning it since `1970) f1rst d1d qu1te well w1ih Warchal Timbre sets. But now with a RONDO set it seemed ot acquire a new l1fe. It is the 54th v10l1n that Charles Woods made. 1 aIs0 0wned his 11th violin that was made n 1990 - until my granddaughter chose it from am0ng all my violins 1n 2001, when 1 gave her the ch01ce. Woods ttold me that the belly 0f #54 came from the same log as #11.)
The Warchal BEAST str1ngs are st1ll stretching, wh1ch seems a l0ng t1me (to me) c0mpared to the other Warchal strings I have used.
1 look f0rward to learn1ng more. If I remove the BEAST set from the SolarI1 intend to try t on the Woods.
1t's st1ll early 0ut here 1n the west (and 1'm st1ll 0ld)!!!
Andrew - you may not be seeing it on your screen but for some of us your font has definitely gone a bit weird and quite hard to read in places.
Yes, it’s a high-tension set—but the problem with most high-tension strings is that they tend to impose their own tonal character on the instrument. And that character, unfortunately, often ends up being a blend of plastic and metal. We tried hard to avoid that.
So, if I were to translate the marketing department's description into “human” language, these are strings with maximum projection but that minimally dictate their own character to the instrument.
The Beast is also the first Warchal set to come in our new packaging. For the first time, we’ve included a “Sound Chart,” but unlike others, we only list the three qualities we believe matter most:
Brilliant – Warm, Subtle – Projective, and Altered – Natural.
To be completely honest, if I were a Warchal customer myself, considering that I no longer play professionally and my violin is quite brilliant and open, I think Timbre or even Amber would be more than enough for me.
I noticed The Beast isn't listed on the tension page yet, or on regular string page, though.
Andy, you seem to have a numeric 1 substituted for every letter "I" (whether uppercase or lowercase) in your posts.
It looks awful on my computer before I enter it on viol1n1st.com but on my computer the result is pretty good on violinist.com output.
AND LOOK AT THAT - THE PROBLEM SEEMS TO HAVE SOLVED ITSELF AFTER 5 DAYS!!! Back to touch typing "hurray!"
Someone at Pirastro shared in a recent interview that they were introduced in the 1990s. I looked at a Shar catalog from 1982, and they aren't there - the only Pirastro synthetic is Aricores. Also, a Shar catalog from 1995 labels them as "new!"
I have heard that something about Tonica strings was changed since then and that may be the 1990s version you refer to. I have never tried them. Maybe I should!
I'm hoping that a week is long enough to get the Beasts. I am super curious. Otherwise I'll need to pick another set for the time being.
By the way, it's really neat to have Mr. Warchal here on this chat to talk about these new strings himself.
Maybe we will get car violin strings:
Aston Martin
Pope Mobile
Tesla
Nascar
Maybe i should not be diluting the serious conversation. And Warchal makes excellent strings. But the name is kind of funny. I suppose its gotta be named somethimg. Drug companies make up preposterous names. I dont think that is a good option.
Oh, and I too prefer the old Tonicas: the new formula sound more like Dominants.
THE BEAST has a full-page ad in the May 2025 issue of the STRAD magazine (my final issue after 55 years - I can't see well enough any longer).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sP_LrcQn7M
A=440 Hz
In this video, I prefer the sound when the strings are tuned at 440 Hz.
I think the strings will probably break in quite fast. If they were slow to break in on my violins it was because I no longer am able to play for a reasonable length of time at one sitting.
The timbres are my go-to, as well.
I tried Timbres on my Noah Saunders Scott viola, which has yet to reach its third birthday. The mature sound, excellent response, and more than ample projection these strings are giving me are attributes I would not have associated with a viola of its young age. But, then again, that is on my instrument and is not meant as any guarantee of universal success.
Andrew Sords, we haven’t yet met, but John and I go WAY back-think late 60s, early 70’s to the American Youth Symphony and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. I would have loved to have heard the Double!
Thank you for your participation in this V.com forum. Your presentation gives us insight into The Beast; especially thanks for your demonstration at A-440 and 415.
Victor: . . .(Everybody, please allow me to go off subject for a minute. )
I am a few years behind you in age (eons behind you in playing ability). I have been diagnosed with macular degeneration. In order to keep reading as long as possible I plan to purchase a Teacher's Book Camera. Focused on a book, this device connects to your computer and enlarges the written or pictorial image significantly on screen. If that is not enough most flat screen TV’s can be connected as computer monitors.
If increasing the size of the print will help this may be something for you to look into; and then you can renew The Strad.
Thank you for all of your insightful comments that you have written. I discovered V.com 17 years ago when I picked up the violin again at age 70 without having played since high school. (And also, thanks, to many other helpful V,com contributors throughout the years.)
It sure would be fun to get the feel of playing my Mezzo strung with Beasts.
ABL
I am curious trying them on my Silvestre.
I did like the timbre on my Rittwagen and the description you gave in the previous thread fits my experience, so I hope to be able to relate your description of the beast.
The big problem now is reading music - too many notes vanish to my vision as well as sharps and flats, ledger and staff lines, fingerings, etc. For some reason I can still see to drive, but I expect to lose that soon too.
Enough of that!
The very best strings on my violin have thus far been the regular-tension Passiones. However, using those during a Maryland summer's humidity is kind of stupid.
I didn't try Rondo Golds yet either and was very disappointed with the Dynamos on my violin, so I am kind of not in the mood for another Thomastik tryout right now. (I am aware that this is highly irrational.)
I also am thinking about going back to some Olives, but I remember the hassle the last time I did play gut strings. As I am the only one in the ensembles I play in considering gut, I know of how annoyed they sometimes are when I need to retune more often then they do.
I tried the Passione back when they were hitting the market. I remember them going faulty very quickly, so I never tried them again. However, that was on the violin shown in my avatar, it behaved very different to strings then all my instruments I still own do.
How high is the tension of The Beasts compared to EPGs or to Rondos? I'm hoping Bohdan will know, given the potential unreliabilty of comparing different manufacturers' tension charts, as I believe they all measure tension a bit differently.
Maybe I should try them again.
I am also interested in learning about the tension relative to Rondos / EPG.
For example, here in Europe, we have 230V in the power grid, and there’s a regulation requiring utility companies to stay within a ±10% range. But even that doesn’t guarantee you’ll always get current within that range at your socket. It only means that if some certified authority confirms you’re getting less than 207V or more than 253V, you have the right to file a complaint.
In our industry, there’s no such regulation. Some manufacturers have adopted publishing string tensions on their packaging purely as a marketing move. That’s why I always tell customers that trying to make detailed comparisons of declared string tensions makes no sense at all..
While I agree that Newton, as part of SI, is the best way to describe force, there are other valid units as well, lbf is actually one of them (not to confuse with lb, which is indeed wrong).
What you probably refer to is manufacturers using weights to display the force in there scales, which indeed is simply false.
kg is no measurement of force, the closest is probably kgf.
I thought I'd give it a go with the 50% off from their site (although the shipping was 'very' expensive so I have not saved as much as 50% more like 20%...)
Anyway...I have really liked them from the very first bow stroke!
To me they are very comparable to the Dynamo on my violin, I dare to say maybe they even make my violin a little more resonant compared to the Dynamo.
I am not a professional, I am an amateur (although I have been learning for a few years at present, I consider myself as intermediate, trying to tackle the Romanian Folk Dances at present) but yes I find them very nice and balanced.
I think I may stick to these in future :)
I have a hard time comparing to Dynamos, as they didn't work for me at all. I don't know why, because almost all strings work fine for me, but Dynamos felt like a dead fish to me instead of resonant. Very hard to control, like slippery in getting control over sound while overall sounding pretty dull. I know, this seems to be on me and my violin, but they were duller than any string I ever tried, and I tried almost all common ones at some point.
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