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| | | Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 2/17/2005 11:09 PM
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| i'm looking for mellow strings...i have helicores on my instrument now and they have a sound almost what i'm looking for, but they're not quite as mellow as i want...i've always had daddario strings on my instrument and i've liked them... just looking for mellow-er... i have a gliga vasile violin... thanks |
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Last Login: 5/25/2005 7:04 PM
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| | I use the Helicore's for alot of my playing in Bluegrass, but I prefer Ol Time and Celtic music. In November, I saw Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas up in Ohio. After the show we got to talk and ask what he uses. He said he prefered the Zyex. He said he'd tried just about everything, including the new titanium, but was not satisfied with them and went back to the Zyex. I put a set on an old fiddle I have and it really helped with the tone. I now have them on two fiddles, for old time, one GDAE, and one AEAE, tuning, and I believe you will find what you're looking for. |
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Supreme Being
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| Great suggestion MT Fiddler! D'Addario Helicore strings are particularly known for their projection, and as with most steel-core strings tend to be bright. Zyex, which is a synthetic gut, is definitely a better option if you are looking for a warmer tone.
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Last Login: 5/11/2006 3:47 PM
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| This thought is in regard to the Admininstrator's reply to this thread: I have a Gliga Vasile viola, still fairly new but definitely opening up, and I've wondered about the same question raised here -- about darker vs. brighter strings. Recently, I put on a set of Helicores I'd had lying around unopened, mainly because I had them already and wanted to get some use from them, although I expected them to be quite wrong for this fairly bright instrument. While they were true Helicore's in all respects, the result was surprising -- reminding me that there are many aspects to this issue of "darkness" or "mellowness" and one issue that is sometimes overlooked is the relative prominence of the fundamental vs the octave. Just as with a true contralto voice, in which one seems to hear the presence of a lower octave sounding more prominently as the voice sings in mezzo register, I noticed that these strings created this type of effect on my viola -- as compared with the Obligatos I'd been using, or the Tonicas that I had also enjoyed. While the "color" was not dark (and happily not muddy either, as with, say Corelli Crystals) there was this more pronounced lower octave in the sound while I still had the advantage of the quick response and the immediate pitch stability. I suspect that this has something to do with the newly opening up quality of the instrument and the very high flexibility of these strings (since stiffer strings have worked poorly on this instrument pretty much in direct proportion to their stiffness). Does this make any sense? (I also realize that objectivity about the sound of one's instrument is elusive.) Can you offer any further thoughts about the role of string flexibility in the quality of sound? (and/or refer me to technical info about this) Thanks. |
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