K people, I have tried numerous strings including helicores, which snap after an hour of playing and Thomastik which are good but sound isn`t quite perfect. Anything under £30 thats good?

Nothing snaps after an hour of playing unless it`s faulty or seriously overtuned.

What brand of violin have you got? Different violins suit different strings.

Liz

I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that a Zyex GDA with a Pirastro Olive Gold E are the best strings known to my Gliga Maestro violin.

Anton`s been around here for a while but he never seems to answer questions. Anton, how can anyone help you if they don`t have the information?

Glad you`ve found strings you like, David ;-)

Sry, but I nderstand that helicores snapped because of my perspiration acoording to a guy. Yeah, we used up like 4 packs of helicores amounting to £50 and they ALL snapped. I have a stentor violin

Zyex are like, £40-£50 aren`t they?

If you got 4 pairs of Helicores for £50 are you sure they weren`t old outdated stock? We as retailers couldn`t get them for that.

Zyex aren`t as much as the better Pirastro strings. Perhaps we`d charge £30 a set.

You still haven`t told us anything about your violin, Anton. It DOES make a difference you know: strings that work brilliantly on Chinese violins will be a disaster on Romanian ones and vice versa, and old German violins are different again. Tell us something at least to go on, it isn`t a secret surely?

Liz

i use thomastick and they`ve lasted me for a pretty god dam long time. and since i`m in america, i don`t know the prices for teh strings. other wise i could have helped. sry

Thomastik strings are £10 here. I beleive that my violin is modern and was made in china.

The only Thomastik strings i can think of that might possibly be as low as £10 are Thomastik precision. Most people here are thinking of Dominants.

In my experience most Chinese student violins do not do at all well with dominants. Try pro-artes, that`s the best we have found for ours. Or Corelli Crystal, they work nicely on some. Better Chinese violins (Stentor Messina and the like) work nicely with Pirastro Tonica.

If you can`t get the results you want with any of those then you will have to face the fact that you are not going to get the sound you want out of your present violin.

Liz

Liz

lol, but I am now ordering tonicas and we will see

and thx but I don`t seem to be too fond of Daddario who make the pro-artes. I think it would be best to try the tonicas and if they don`t work I understand from this and other forums that crystals should be my best shot.

Well, let us know how you get on with them.

Liz

I see I owe you an apology, Anton. I have just re-read some of these posts and i see you did indeed tell us that you had a Stentor. Sorry. Still, there is a lot of difference between Stentor 1, Stentor 2, Stentor Conservatoire, Stentor Messina and so on. The tonicas work nicely on Messinas and above, I haven`t tried them on anything below that. I have seen Helicores work really well on a Stentor 1 (why yours all snapped I can`t imagine: did that only happen with the Helicores?)

Did you ever upgrade your bow? I am asking because that does make quite a difference to the tone (it was you wasn`t it? Also you who had recently done grade 5?)

liz

I wouldnt use D`Addario strings, as their mainly a guitar products company. I would use something that has violin strings as their specialty.

Ive heard the Pirastro Oliv E`s are the way to go... I havent tried one out myself but I`ve been meaning to.

Thomastik`s new vision line is pretty nice. The silver/synthetic strings seem to be more of everything than the dominants, more mellow on the longer notes but still crisp. The titanium E sounds pretty nice too.