howdy. I’ve just started dabbling in fiddle, with my fiancee’s old violin. it’s a decent basic factory instrument, but I find it’s too far on the bright side for me. The strings are ancient and are pretty frayed and need to be replaced soon. Any recommendations for some mellow-toned strings? I know nothing about violin strings…
Strings with a synthetic core will generally have a tone that is less bright than steel-core strings. Thomastic Dominant strings with a perlon core are probably the most popular strings in the world. A discount price should be $25-$30/set.
thanks
Ditto Doug’s suggestion.
If you like those, shop around and try some other synthetic strings. You can also get “non-whistling” E strings now, which help those of us prone to squeaks.
Thomastik makes several sets of strings that would probably be a good choice to go for. Depending on what you want to spend for your strings, you can get regular Dominants, which really are great all around strings. I see you’re in California, so I’d recommend trying out www.swstrings.com . I always get my strings from them–their prices are usually about the lowest I can find, and shipping is free on string-only orders. Since they’re based in Arizona, they ship super fast here to the west coast. Of course, if you have a decent small town privately owned shop, I’m always supportive of buying stuff from them.
As a second option, a more expensive one, the same brand Thomastik makes a kind of string called the Infeld which is a notch above the regular Dominants. They have two color lines, the Infeld Red and the Infeld Blue. I believe, although I may remember wrong so you should probably check, that the red ones are supposed to be rather mellow and the blue ones brighter. I’ve used both and liked them better than regular dominants, however they were more expensive. Just something to think about.
If you have the money and the patience, it is a good idea to try different sets of strings until you find one that particularly suits your instrument. I went through quite a variety of brands before finaly settling on one for myself.
Good luck with your string search!
On the same instrument indubitably true, but the real source of harshness and/or brightness on yer fiddle is the tension of the strings, not what they are made from. So tuning any scratchy fiddle down to C or lower both softens and sweetens the sound.
When buying an instrument it’s well worth looking into these issues because once bought, you are stuck with it, and like a badly made Uilleann Chanter, later there is very little that can be done to fix the problem. Another way to look at this, ask yourself why are there so many Violins hanging and not being played? My best advice is buy a new instrument with setup and known strings fitted that IS softer and easier to play than the scratchbox you now suffer. Oh and do find and book classes with a ‘qualified’ teacher.
This is all quite obvious and since I’m borrowing a fiddle for the time being, it’s not particularly helpful. It just needs new strings and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do on the microlevel to tone down this aspect of the sound. In any case, I wouldn’t even call it “scratchy,” it’s just bright and my ear always tends towards darker sounding instruments. As a guitarist I have experienced that there is some room for adjustment by choosing different strings, and this is more or less the kind of adjustment I’m looking for.
I"m not even going to think about buying my own fiddle until the new classical guitar is done and paid for, and the flute repairs, and the unplayed guitars have found new homes.
Sorry to have made a comment.
Winding the strings lower works BTW because they are more flexible, hence the gut or softcore string will sound better than a the harder steel core. It isn’t as obvious as you might have thought it to be.
The synthetic core Dominants might help but if there’s added fine tuners for all the strings they say synthetic core strings don’t perform as well.
Added fine tuners shorten the length of the used string.
If the fine tuners are a part of the tail piece they say its not such a problem. I’ve seen tail pieces with the fine tuners incorporated in them in the swstrings catalog for pretty cheap.
I say “they say” because my ears aren’t that good at noticing that sort of thing yet.
I had a tail piece without the embedded fine tuners on my fiddle and was toying with changing the tail piece myself the next time I changed strings but then the bridge broke.
That was quite a bit beyond my skills so I took it into a luthier which was a very good thing because the sound post was not in the best position.
Which I should add, they tell me where the sound post is can make a big difference with the sound of a fiddle.
So, my advice is; if you’re not satisfied with the sound of your boyfriend’s fiddle perhaps you might want to take it for a visit to a luthier just to see if there’s anything with the set up that can be easily adjusted.
Btw, ancient and are pretty frayed strings?
Some folks change strings every 6 months or sooner depending how much they play the fiddle.
And double btw, Dominants are said by some to go “dead” fast.
I use steel strings on my fiddle. I don’t find them too bright in a crowd. When practicing at home late at night I use a heavy mute. A heavy mute makes the fiddle sound like an old crank up record player to my ears. I’ve found my intonation a bit better while using one,
at least to my ears.
Tuning down a note can make it a bit confusing learning tunes from other fiddles or recordings of fiddles that aren’t tuned down a note, especially if you’re playing around with double stops.
My head hurts just thinking about trying to do that
but then, my head hurts easy.
I didn’t mean to sound that snippy… Sorry. I just can’t buy a new fiddle on a whim, so I’m going to make do with what I have.
These strings haven’t been changed or probably even played in years. It could just be that any new strings will make the sound better. Again, it’s not a bad fiddle, it’s just probably (in the long run) not the one for me.
IIRC Andy McGann (RIP) used to always play with a mute because he preferred the tone. I’m not sure what kind of mute he used, though i used to use the Roth mute a lot in my fiddling days. It clips on the strings behind the bridge and can be positioned either proximally to or right on top of the bridge to take the edge off or just outright mute the strings. Doesn’t kill the tone completely, though, like the heavy mutes, so not so good for nighttime practicing.
For strings i always favored Dominants, myself, steel strings being a bit harsh and also putting more tension on the top.
Soundpost adjustment can make a big difference too, as was said before.
One more thing, what kind of a bow are you using?
After doing what I could with the “set up” of my fiddle I upgraded my bow (currently a not too expensive graphite fiber).
I noticed an immediate improvement in my playing and this is without doing the Classic violin hold.
it’s just whatever was with it. I know it’s not as light as my fiancee’s bow, but it doesn’t feel particularly heavy to me. I know it could use a rehairing, and I’ll probably get that done soon.
Rather than rehair that old heavy stick, you might want to consider an incredibow, a very lightweight carbon fiber bow, offered by a Chiffer. Here is his greenspiderweb’s recent post:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=443700
Also keep in mind that many popular strings, such as Thomastic Dominants, can be purchased in three different tensions, with the light tension strings having a softer sound. As has been previously mentioned, if you plan to used synthetic core strings, such as Dominants, and also plan to use string adjusters for all four strings, it is better to use an appropriate tailpiece with built-in adjusters designed for fat strings. Dominants tend to break at the end with the steel, add-on adjusters.
I’ve been considering an incredibow. They’re pretty reasonably priced and certainly an improvement over this thing.
The tailpiece does seem to have added fine-tuners. I’ll try a lighter tension version of whatever it has on it, and see about the incredibow. Seems like a good thing for a newbie dabbler like me.
I think liking the Incredibow or not is a very personal thing. I’ve read some bad reviews of the product over on Fiddle-L.
I used Domimants for a year with fine-tuner add ons and didn’t have any string breakage but, as I said, the manufactor has said because the add ons shorten the usable string length it effects the quality of sound delivered.
And as I mentioned, my ears couldn’t tell the difference from what I got and what it could have been.
When your old stings are dead, any new set of strings is going to sound better.
Ya just have to ask yourself if its a kind of better you wanna live with.