How to make your violin sound better with different strings | Violin Lounge TV #540
Let’s review typically warm sounding violin strings: D’Addario Pro Arte, Larsen Tzigane and Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Gold:
Featured violin: Zubak Soloist by Kennedy Violins
In this video I review different warm sounding violin strings with the Zubak Soloist violin. This is a beautiful bright sounding violin and I love the different sound colors we discover with different types of strings.
The Zubak Soloist is an excellent upgrade from your student violin and is an instrument you can enjoy for your whole life. Kennedy Violins is a reliable violin shop with excellent service and a professional set up of their instruments.
Watch my review of the Zubak Soloist violin outfit right here.
00:57 D’Addario Prelude violin string review
The strings this violin came with are the D’Addario Prelude strings. These are relatively warm sounding steel strings. The tuning stability, response and the sound is excellent. As these strings cost below $ 20 a set at the moment of writing, this is great value for money. However, some might say the violin sounds a bit too bright with these strings, so we’re going to experiment with other types of strings.
02:33 D’Addario Pro Arte violin string review
Pro Arte are warm sounding synthetic core strings that are used a lot by violin shops on their rental instruments. Costing under $ 40 a set, they are a great affordable choice for synthetic core strings. They have a warm and mellow sound, good tuning stability and gave a nice feel under the finger tips. It’s a great all round buying tip.
04:07 Larsen Tzigane violin string review
Tziganes cost over $ 80 for a set of strings, so they’re definitely in a different range than the D’Addarios we tried before. I do think that if this is within your budget, it’s totally worth it. What stood out for me is the tuning stability. Right after you put them on your violin, they stay in tune. They hardly need any break in time. The sound is warm, mellow and a bit more complex than the D’Addarios we tried. I’m definitely keeping these to use on my own violin as a more affordable alternative to our next strings: the Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Golds.
05:42 Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Gold violin string review
I’ve been using these strings myself for years already. As soon as I put these strings on the Zubak Soloist violin, I almost forgot that I was playing on a different violin. The sound got so similar to my own violin. I love the complex, full and warm sound of these strings. As a set is over $ 100, you might think they’re too expensive, but I do think they’re worth the upgrade. You could save a little bit, by choosing the silver instead of the gold G string (click here to hear the difference). They are a bit more solistic than the Tziganes and the response is very sensitive. Would you buy these strings?
Hi! I'm Zlata
Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.
What are your favorite violin strings?
I hope you enjoyed this review. Of course different strings will sound differently on different violins and all people have different preferences. This is why the choice of strings is so personal and the only way to figure out if you’ll like a type of strings is to try them out for yourself.
I totally realize that you don’t want to spend a ton of money on strings that aren’t a great fit for you and your violin, which is why I created this violin strings comparison chart you can see right here. It’s an ultimate buying guide and removes the guesswork from selecting strings.
Now let me know in the comment what your favorite strings are! I’m so curious what you think.
Thank you for this Zlata, I surely love the Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Gold violin string the most.
Me too 🙂
Hello Zlata,
I have used both the Larsen Tzigane and Larsen Virtuoso strings. I thought the Virtuoso would be a notch better than the Tzigane, because I prefer their warm mellow sound to the more brilliant Tzigane, but that’s me!! I think they are both worth the cost and I put them a notch above the Dominant and D’Addario. I stayed away from the Pirazzi Gold, except for the E string, because on several reviews, they were rated less than others I tried. May be I should give them a shot
I like the Golds very much, but I’ll definitely use the Tziganes for some months.