Pirastro Violin String Set – Medium Gauge

This is my first time trying this specific line of Pirastro strings, and I love them. I’ve always been generally pleased with Pirastro, but had found the Tonicas I was using before fell short of my expectations. The Obligatos, however, have really brought a new life into my violin. While I play mostly Irish and Scottish traditional music, I also enjoy playing music from the late Renaissance and Baroque eras, and these strings well suit the qualities of both traditional folk and these musical eras.These strings are described by others as having a “darker” quality — which had appealed to me upon reading. But I had a bit of trouble imagining what exactly that “dark” quality would sound like — especially as sound is so subjective. I have to agree that I can see how this “dark” qualification would come about — but it’s not because the strings sound ominous or leaden, or fail to be able to convey complex nuances of sound. Rather, I think this descriptor is the result of the rich tone these strings produce, generating a sound that is reminiscent of the deep, ambient tone gut strings produce and the brooding and momentous quality of Baroque.

The strings are lower tension — which suits my vintage 1906 violin well. I had often noticed in the past, with other strings, that I loved the sound my instrument would produce if I tuned my strings down a half-step. The sound vibrations seemed to resonate better with my instrument then — and I also know that lower tension strings tend to be better for vintage plectrum instruments as well, like my 1920s Weymann mandolute. So perhaps the same is true for older violin and other vintage members of the bowed instrument family.

To get back to parsing this “dark” tonal quality — perhaps it’s because I have always been deeply partial to the sound produced by gut strings and Baroque compositional patterns, but this “darkness” in the Obligatos is more like an ambient warmth. Here is how I might try to describe the image and feeling that stirred in me upon hearing the sound of these strings: The sound is like a warm, copper-hued vintage sound of the sort one might imagine hearing in an ambient, stone-walled room illuminated by the amber warmth of a quietly crackling hearth and the flickering of candles reflecting off a lovely burnished copper collection of sound. It is a sound that is both richly warm with gut string-like qualities, and sweetly saturnine — that quality of feeling when something feels joyous melancholy and brooding.

I decided to try pairing these new strings with Pirastro’s Obligato rosin, out of curiosity and to experiment with a new rosin, and I have been pleasantly surprised. I had read several differing opinions about how rosin type affects sound, with some more dubious and others describing how there are scientific aspects of rosin production that can affect a string’s ability to vibrate, based on material, etc. This is my first new rosin in probably 15 years — and it’s been a positive pairing so far. Perhaps there is something to Pirastro’s assertions that certain rosins work better with certain strings. The Obligato rosin is an amber rosin with very low dust, but I’ve noticed that matched with the Obligato strings, my bow seems to be smoother at the frog where it would formerly “grunt” or “crack” a little, and there is a subtle but noticeable “bite” that my bow achieves on the strings — as if it adheres well without being overburdened or “sticking” too much. Double-stops seem to benefit from this subtle difference as well.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that my old rosin might have been “expired” — who knew that rosin might well have a shelf life? But the improvement in sound and bowing is tantalizing enough that I will try this pairing again — or a similar one when I next have to replace my strings. I will probably have to get Obligatos again, even though I want to explore more strings, simply because they seem so well suited to my instrument and I have been nothing but delighted by the experience so far.

I tried these strings, hoping for something more responsive than the Dominants I have used for years. I did not find them to be any more responsive; furthermore, they did not sing as nicely as I would have liked and did not stay in tune well. I have put my year-old Dominants back on my violin and am happy with the sound again. I am disappointed to have spent nearly twice as much as I normally would on a set of strings… especially since I waited too long and, now, cannot return them.

I’ve used Dominants for years but I’m drawn to darker tones and my violin tends to be a bit brighter so I decided to try these. I have a fifty year old German violin and these strings sound amazing on it. I’ve never had it resonate so well and I’ve never had such clarity and power on the G string. The Dominant G string always sounded weak and muddy to me. My only complaint is that my pack of strings came and the E string was missing which is a major inconvenience and for this amount of money I expect to not worry about things like that.