i am looking for a good set of strings. i am only intermediate; i am in 8th grade and have only been playing for about two years. obviously, i won`t be needing the best strings on the market. i tried red labels, and they were ok. does anyone know a brand that sells strings about as good as red label? thanks a ton!

Since you`re at an intermediate level, I can`t really say: I am at about the same stage!
I`m the process of getting a new viola, but on my old viola helicores made a great sound, and they aren`t too pricy either.

Get some real strings: uncovered gut a, d, g and a silver-wound gut core C.

It will cost a bit more and you have to replace them more often, but you really are not playing a viola until you try the gut;-)

Uncovered gut is all very well for an experienced player, but for the comparitively inexperienced there are several factors against it:

Cost: gut strings are expensive and need replacing frequently.
Tuning: you can`t use microtuners on gut strings, and using the pegs can be tricky at first.
Pitch stability: Gut strings go out of tune a lot.
Tone quality: it`s harder to get a good sound out of them.

Hi Godzilla,

My replies interleaved below:

>Uncovered gut is all very well for an experienced player, but for the comparitively inexperienced there are several factors against it:

>Cost: gut strings are expensive and need replacing frequently.

The frequency of replacement has as much to do with how you take care of them as anything else. I have seen "synthetic" strings fail in a week, too. Gut can last a long time if well cared for.

>Tuning: you can`t use microtuners on gut strings, and using the pegs can be tricky at first.

Sound like a reason *to* use gut. A student that cannot tune his or her own viola is a crippled student. That includes using the pegs.

>Pitch stability: Gut strings go out of tune a lot.

They only go out of tune when atmosphereic conditions change.

>Tone quality: it`s harder to get a good sound out of them.

Well, this is precisely why a student should use gut. How is the student going to learn to get good sound production if he or she plays on a fishing line? Playing on synthetics merely allows the player to avoid learning to really get sound out.

Frankly, I think it is easier to get sound out of gut--you don`t have to mash on it. Sure, you need to have some dexterity to prevent crunching at the initiation, but that is something worth learning, isn`t it?

>Sound like a reason *to* use gut. A >student that cannot tune his or her own >viola is a crippled student. That >includes using the pegs.

It depends on just how "beggining" the student is. For the first month of playing I used microtuners only.

>They only go out of tune when >atmosphereic conditions change.

I live in a a changable maritime climate: my strings need tuning every day and I play on helicores.

>Well, this is precisely why a student >should use gut. How is the student >going to learn to get good sound >production if he or she plays on a >fishing line? Playing on synthetics >merely allows the player to avoid >learning to really get sound out.

I will point out that a lot of violists use metal or synthetic strings and get a good professional sound out of them. In fact I have only met one violist who uses gut, and they play early music.
However, to be fair, I should probably try gut strings just to see how they are. What variety do you use on your viola?

bill, Since I see you`re posting on other topics, perhaps you could inform me of the string brand you use?

At this moment, I have Eudoxa on my violin, with a Jargar light E. On my viola, right now, I have dominants and a Zyex a. I hate the zyex a. I want to go get another set of gut for it, but I am focusing on the violin right now so waiting a bit. I am also thinking of changing to a 15" to see what it is like, so we`ll see. Helicores seem quite nice, too, though very different from gut. I like them much more than the plain steel "Super-sensitives".

But I am no expert on strings. I have not used vision, pirastro synthetics, corelli, Lar*sen or many others. But I really like gut. But I also really like the helicores. I think of this duality the same way that I like a steel string guitar and also like a classical. Except that the violin sound differences going from steel to gut seem much smaller to me than in a guitar.

In my opinion, gut is worth trying, even if you don`t use it constantly. It is rather humbling. You have to be more alert with it, but it pays back with some wonderful variety of sound.

Lots of people seem to be deathly afraid of tuning their violins. This is ironic of course--seems to me that until you can tune the %$&$ thing you really cannot play it. Gut is a good way to force the resolution of this problm. You have to tune all the time!