Buying Violin Strings

You can buy strings individually or get a whole set.  It is wise to check you have spare strings in case one breaks just before a concert or you loose a whole week of practise.

If you want to buy locally the Harp Shop and the Exchange in Totnes sell strings. They sell D’addario which are perfectly fine but you may want to get a better quality string (see below).

I use String Zone online because their prices are good and they don’t charge postage which is useful if you’re only buying one string (just check you choose the free postage option unless you want the default first class.  I find them pretty speedy even with economy delivery.)

This is their collection of strings for smaller violins. You do get what you pay for so Evah Pirazzi (which is what I use) are brilliant, Dominant are very good, Thomastik is what I tend to get for our smaller violins, and D’addario are perfectly good too.

For full size violins it is worth getting good quality strings if you can as they last well. I use Evah Pirazzi (approx £57 for a set and see the note below*) but use Tonica for Oscar’s violin as they have been on special offer for a while (approx £27). Dominant are very good (£37 approx for a set) and they also make the cheaper Thomastik Vision (approx £25 for a set).

* (Note for Evah Pirazzi strings – they give you different options. I would go for MEDIUM tension, SILVERY STEEL and then you will need to choose a ball or loop end for your E string depending on what you use (have a look at the string at the adjuster/tailpiece end and you will see a ball or a loop).)

The “Violin Strings Make me Nervous” sign is simply because violin strings were thought to have been made out of cat gut but actually it might have been short for cattle gut as sheeps and goats intensines were more likely to be used. They are still used sometimes, particularly on Baroque strings but all these modern strings here are synthetic!