I am looking for suggestions on what kind of strings I should get for my violin. It is a pretty bright sounding violin so I want strings witha rich/deep sound. I have dominants on right now but they are too bright. Any suggestions as far as brands or where I can get some? Someone suggested to me getting orchestra strings instead of solo strings.

any ideas?

Hmm ... these might be worth an experiment:

Corelli Crystal
Daddario Pro-arte
Daddario Zyex
Infeld red label

(not in any particular order)

Try a gut string, like Eudoxa. It you`re not willing to deal with the side effects of gut strings, Obligato is the closest thing to gut that isn`t gut.

I just ordered some Daddario Pro-arte strings so I`ll let you guys know how those work. Thanks for the input.

I am looking at getting some spare strings for my Violin, probably Dominants. But would like to know what the difference between soft, med and Strong is. Is it tension or sound? Or something else?

Oh and does anybody know of a cheap online store? My local shop is charging nearly 40 quid...

Olive is the deepest rich sound or Eudoxa, but they don`t come cheep. Gold by pirastro is also a good gut string and far cheeper than Olive or Eudoxa. I would also try synthetic strings such as obligato (which I use) or tonica because they also give out really rich sounds without going out of tune all the time. Perlon core is really good also and it is a type of synthetic string and I suggest using the Aricore. Steel strings are a little brighter, but still somewhat rich and I would recommend the Thomastik Dominant (usually popular with violinists), and D`Addadio or the Corelli. Good Luck! Oh, and another thing. There isn`t a type of string that will make everyone`s violin sound good. Each violin is different and needs different strings to sound good. So that means, if your friend has D`Addadio strings on and they sound great, doesn`t mean they will sound good on your violin also. You just have to keep trying until you find a string that you like and sounds really great, and then you`ve found your string. Each violin is unique like each person. Good Luck!!

Go for medium unless you have a good reason not to. High tension give more volume but are harder to play. Low tension are easier to play but give less volume.

Liz

There`s lots of online strings shops, you can even get Dominant strings from ebay. Decide whether you want plain E or wound (plain is ghastly but cheaper). We can supply them (wound only, we don`t touch plain) but we may not be the cheapest. Try a search.

Liz

Yeah, i hear things about stringsdirect.com being cheap

There`s a high chance you won`t like the Dominant E. Lots of people substitute with Pirastro Gold or something.
But I`d choose Obligato over Dominant on 9 out of 10 violins.