Choosing the right Strings (Violin family of instruments)
Violin strings can significantly affect the sound of your instrument. You may want to experiment with different brands to determine the sound you like best on your violin.
Strings are made of several different types of materials:
All-metal strings are often described as having a bright, loud sound. These strings generally have a steel core, and are wound with various metals such as silver, titanium or steel. All-metal strings often remain in tune better than other strings (the steel core isn’t as impacted by humidity and temperature as gut-core or synthetic-core strings). For this reason, all-metal strings are often used in student violins. Some violinists use E strings made of steel such as Pirastro’s Gold Label E in combination with synthetic-core brands for the other strings.
These strings use a core made out of a durable synthetic product such as perlon or kevlar, and are wrapped with metals such as aluminum or silver. Synthetic-core strings are designed to replicate the rich sound of gut strings, and feature a warm, bright tone without requiring the frequent tuning of gut-core strings. Brands such as Thomastik’s Dominant strings were the first synthetic string made, and still enjoy wide popularity. If you buy a set of synthetic core strings, many of these sets do include a steel violin E string.
Some professional violinists prefer gut-core strings because of the rich, warm sound they produce on their instrument. These strings are not as durable as metal or synthetic-core strings, and are more sensitive to humidity and temperature changes, thus requiring more frequent tuning than other strings. Many gut-core violin string sets include a steel or gold-plated steel E string, meaning only the G, D and A strings have gut cores.