Violin strings, like every thing else these days, it seems, come in a bewildering variety of materials and thicknesses. Depending upon the iinstrument, the kind of music played and the violinist’s particular touch, the choice of strings will be different. In general, violin strings are made of traditional gut, steel or sythetic materials.
The most popular today are the synthetic core strings, first introduced in the 1970s when Thomasiki-Infield began producing the revolutionary Dominants made of nylon perlon. Many more manufacturers have since entered the field and synthetic strings are now made of a wide variety of materials, but still today Dominants remain the most popular and sought-after strings.
Qualities of Types of Strings
Gut is, of course, the traditional material for violin strings, though not, as legend has it, cat gut, but, rather, sheep gut. Sheep gut strings held sway for so long primarily because of their rich, warm tone and variety of overtones. Sheep gut strings take a bit longer to stretch to the perfect place, and, once stretched tend to be very stable, though, like many natural fibers, they do react ot changing weather conditions. Today, gut is partially a misnomer as gut strings are wrapped with other materials, such as copper wire, to give the string added weight. Most classical musicians prefer gut strings, particularly those who specialize in Baroque or medieval music.
Steel core strings are more to the liking of pop, rock or jazz musicians who favor their durabillity as well as their bright, clear sound. Being made of steel, these strings are very durable and so are also favored by those beginning the study of the violin who tend to be rather rough on their instruments.
Then, the synthetic core violin strings have become extremely popular since they are durable, have good overtones and are quite stable. In sum, they combine for many violinists the qualities of both the steel and the gut strings.
Beyond the material of the violin strings, the violinist must consider the thickness of the string which come in stiff, medium and soft. Each manufacturer varies somewhat in its product and what that product can do. For a good discussion, violinist.com offers a very comprehensive review on its blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment