Did you notice a break-in period when you last changed strings?

  1. mzurer
    mzurer
    I replaced the 20-year old strings with D'Addario Pro-Artes... They are LOUD. I don't remember this violin being such a screamer, though it was a long time ago that I played with any regularity. The A and E are a little screechy, though I would not rule out the player...

    Have you found the tone mellows out after some period of play-in?
  2. walt33
    walt33
    What a spendthrift, changing strings every 20 years. ;-)
  3. mzurer
    mzurer
    Well, the A was broken, and McCabe's wouldn't sell me a single!
  4. TonyEarth
    TonyEarth
    wow! i'd say change your strings at least a bit more regularly and I'm usually uncomfortable with new strings too, but the string starts sounding better and i get more used to it after some playing.
  5. farmerjones
    farmerjones
    Strings aren't getting any cheaper, are they?
    i play the fiddle more but change the strings the least. I've always come back to Prim.
    I change them about once a year, maybe longer. This steel seems fairly inert. Some body chemestries works against getting a long life out of a string. i guess im lucky.

    When i do change strings im fairly merciless to them from the get-go. I pull them laterally and out very roughly. The idea being where a string breaks over a sharp point, nearly a kink, the string will continue to "stretch" until the string settles into the sharpest bend it can. I'm talking, at the tuning peg, or capstan on a guitar. Windings too must be plated together tightly, or else the string will continue to "stretch." Well seated steel strings on a solid instrument don't drift much for me. BTW while i always keep my instruments out of the cases. I think they stay more stable that way. You can keep a humidifier in the case or not, but it's still different than an open room. i do try to keep a cloth thrown over them for dust.
  6. Mandoviol
    Mandoviol
    It takes a relatively short time for mine to break in. I just changed them a few weeks ago after not having put new ones on for a year or two, and they're sounding pretty good. But boy if changing them isn't terrifying! All the clicks and cracking sounds new strings make when you're tuning them. I always sweat bullets when I have to do it.
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