Quality of Sound

Your Question: I have a 1928 Bert Goodwin 4/4 violin that has a good resonance ,reasonable volume,and I should be honest and say that I am a backyard 78 year old low end country fiddler so my knowledge of violin operation is limited. I can play reasonably ok with the radio or computer fiddle or at the fiddle club but as a solo I fail badly. Regardless it's my way of loving to play fiddle I use Daddario Hellicore heavy strings with pirastro gold E. Is that a good choice for resonance and quality sound? Or do you suggest I get live advice by a local luthier. A.J

My Answer: Dear A.J.,
There is no perfect string for all instruments. The combination that you are using is rather unusual. If you are happy with the sound then I'd suggest staying with the string combination that you are using.

My experience with the Helicore strings is that they do wear out quickly and if you don't have four fine tuners they can be difficult to tune. In general I'm not a big fan of gold plated E strings unless the violin has a harsh sounding E that you want to tone down. My experience has been that the gold plated E strings are expensive and the gold plating wears off quickly. I've also noticed that they seem more prone to "whistling" than plain steel E strings.

If you want to try other strings I'd suggest Thomastik Dominant with the #129 (plain steel) E string or the Thomastik Vision strings. The Dominant strings are the standard string used by most violin shops. In our shop we usually set up an instrument with Dominants and if we want to change the sound we then use something different depending on the sound we are trying to achieve. The Vision strings are a good alternative to the Dominant because they are less expensive and settle in much quicker than Dominants. Lots of fiddle players use Thomastik strings. Pirastro also makes very good strings as well.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Sheila Graves, Violin Dealer and CEO
Simply Violin