TYPES OF VIOLIN STRINGS
There are four types of
violin strings that I'm aware of:
Gut strings. These
are very mellow sounding, and the weather avvects them quite a lot,
especially the humidity. They are fairly expensive and for me
they have been rather unpredictable.
Steel strings. Steel
strings are inexpensive, and the weather does not affect them much at
all. They sound very bright, so on an unrefined instrument they
will sound quite harsh. But for a beginner, the price is
right.
I like to use a steel E string. It lasts a long time and doesn't
cost much, and is very reliable.
Steel-wound gut
strings. I used these for many years on the A, D and G. They
combine the best (and worst) attributes of gut and steel strings.
When the steel winding breaks and starts to peel off, you can get parts
of it stuck in your fingers, which doesn't feel very good. But
they are a good compromise between gut and steel. My problem with
them lately is that they break in a couple months after I install them,
or the windings are bad when I first buy them new. The quality
control seems to have gone down hill.
Synthetic
strings. These
are a fairly new item, and I'm trying some. They seem to require
more rosin on the bow than do steel-wound gut strings, but they
sound good and the weather doesn't affect them much at all. Also,
they settle into pitch in a day or two, instead of going badly out of
tune for up to a week after you install a steel-wound gut string.