Some thoughts on violin strings

The strings you put on your instrument are almost as important as the instrument itself. The job of the wooden box across which you stretch your strings is only to amplify what goes into it. What produces the vibrations going into the box? You guessed it: the strings! That being said, we can't forget about the role of the player in this equation, but that's not the purpose of this post.

The best instrument in the world can't sound like much with bad strings, because it only amplifies what goes into it. If the strings sound dead, the instrument sounds dead. If the strings have weird overtones, the instrument has weird overtones. If the strings are just loud and monotonal, the instrument will be....well, you get the picture.

There are many factors that go into the interaction between the player, the bow, the string, and the instrument, but the relationship between the strings and the instrument is critical to the sound. The tension, elasticity, diameter, and material of the strings determine this relationship. There isn't space here to go into details about all of this, but there are a few practical considerations that serious players should take into account.

The first of these considerations is the core material of the string. These materials are usually steel, nylon, or gut. The biggest difference is in the elasticity, or how much the string can stretch. When the string is not in motion, it is straight and a certain length. When it vibrates, the middle of the string moves from side to side, which requires 1) the string to stretch intermittently or 2) the instrument to allow a shortening of the distance between the bridge and the nut.

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Steel strings have little elasticity, which means that when they vibrate widely, they transfer a lot of energy into the instrument. The don't give much length when they curve, so the instrument has to give more. Many low end instruments need this drive to get the box vibrating. On the other end of the spectrum are gut strings. They have a lot of stretch, and when they vibrate, they stretch a lot, and don't make the instrument give as much. For many well aged and highly sensitive instruments, this is a good thing.

In the middle are nylon (or synthetic) core strings. As far as elasticity, they fall between steel and gut. During the vibration, they allow some stretch, while the instrument also gives some length. Most players use synthetics.

Then there are the different winding options for strings. The metals used include aluminum, silver, chromium, nickel, titanium, and even gold. Going into all the details about all the metals would take this from a blog post to a lengthy article. The most common are aluminum and silver. As many musicians know, if a string is lighter, it will vibrate at a higher pitch. Aluminum is lighter than silver, so it takes more aluminum to bring the string to the appropriate weight for the pitch. An aluminum wound string will vibrate at a higher pitch than a silver string of the same diameter. This discussion of aluminum and silver brings up the most important point about synthetic (and gut) strings. Never mix a silver D and an aluminum A.

Here's why: It's in the diameter and flexibility of the strings. Read this article for a good explanation of what follows here.

Silver D's are in many cases smaller in diameter than aluminum A's. A thicker string is less flexible and will cause its overtone spectrum to stretch out more than a thinner string. When the A string's overtones stretch out more than the D string's spectrum, it becomes impossible to get the fundamental frequencies tuned together along with all the overtones. When the fundamentals are properly tuned, the overtones clash, and the sound is unblended and out of tune. These strings will never sound right when played together.

The solutions for this are as follows:

1. Use aluminum for both the A and D:
   This brings the diameter of the D string into better proportion with the A, so that the overtones line up better. There are many options for aluminum wound D strings in sets from Thomastik and Pirastro.
2. Use a Steel core A with a silver D:
   This brings the A string into better proportion with the silver D with the added perk that the "break" between the A and E will not be as drastic. If you think a steel core A is metallic and harsh, try the Warchal Russian Style A. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Finding just the right string combination takes time and experimentation, but armed with more information, you can more easily find the best for you and your instrument.

Questions? Please leave comments below!