Pirastro 419021 Evah Pirazzi GOLD Violin Set (G-Gold, E-Ball) Medium

I prefer regular Evah's or Obligato'sThese have an edginess to them that I just don't like.I was hoping these would sound like Evah's and last longer. But I can't deal with how they sound.Tried them on two different $6000.00 Violins.Keep in mind I'm comparing to other strings in the same family. They are good strings, just not as good as Evah's or Obligato's.

Love playing on these strings for the rich and vibrant sound that I get when playing a performance with the orchestra.

When I received these strings, they looked used and I was skeptical. Now that I have had these strings for 4 months, only 4, I now know that they were used because the strings are now dull sounding, the quality is awful, and they change tones at the end when you let it ring (a sign of old strings). Awful, will never buy from these people again.

First let me start by saying I am in no way slamming these strings as junk.They are d**m expensive, but I thought I would try them as they have pretty good reviews across the web. I put them on yesterday evening. They took a bit to get tuned because the winding at the bottom of the string at the ball was so thick that it wouldn’t fit into the fine tuners. No big deal, I just worked with it till they went in. Tuning them of course seated the ball via the tension, so I had to tune a few times as the balls seated in the fine tuners better. They seem to be still settling in so I had to do a good bit of tuning today when I got my violin out. The A in particular was way out. The D and G were not as bad, but still had to be brought up to tune. Surprisingly the E was spot on. That was the hardest one to get on the violin. It’s so fine that the end actually broke in the peg, and I had to pull it out, cut off the break, and re-do it because it came out of the peg while I was installing them. (Yes I do them one at a time, for those who might be panicking that I’m taking them all off at once)They feel pretty good on the finger board. Not harsh or cutting into my fingers. Easy to work with. (Only been playing for about eight months so I don’t have real thick callouses yet).But. The infamous but. They just don’t sound good on my particular violin. They’re too, I don’t know, bright? High toned? Just off. I had Helicores on it before, and they sound infinitely better. Much more rich and full. Deeper and more expression. The Helicores had so much more range and tone. Maybe the Pirazzi’s will settle and sound better in a week or so, maybe not. I’m going to keep them on and play them for a couple of weeks and see how they do, if they just need to stretch and settle. If they still sound “off” then I’ll probably pull them back off and put the Helicores back on.I’m sure these Evah Pirazzi strings will work great on another violin. They’re just not sounding good on mine. At least at this point.Again, I’m not in any way belittling or trashing these strings. The sound all depends on the violin. They are all different. They all have their own quirks and tones. I don’t have a cheap VSO either. It’s a good quality instrument. Certainly not a Strad (I wish), but it’s not a cheapo.

Good string.

Players should bear in mind that there is no perfect string for every violin but this pirazzi gold is really exceptionally good, and I suspect it particularly suits violins around 100 years old and which has a more mature sound. Entirely new violins I am not sure. It is quite costly but if your violin is a good vintage one, this set is well worth a try !