Thomastik Peter Infeld Violin Strings Set Platinum E

I bought a fine professional violin several months ago that was set up with Thomastik-Infeld Dominants when I picked it up for the first time. It’s lovely, modern violin based on the Guarneri del Gesù pattern, made back in 2014 and comes from the workshop of Ming-Jiang Zhu; it is made up entirely of European tone woods, save for the fittings. I’d really loved the tone and playability of this violin to begin with, and so the Dominants, being a fairly neutral string and being neither too bright, nor too dark, weren’t seemingly trying to “play up” the instrument’s inherent & immense power and depth, so that’s saying something about my violin’s tonal character; therefore, I’m certain I made the right choice with this instrument and it has every quality I’ve ever looked for in a violin in terms of sound quality and responsiveness. I figured I would wear those strings out before long, anyway, with as much as I practice(2-4 hours per day) and would tailor the sound to my own preferences whenever it was time to replace them. Now, I have lots of experience with Dominants and have played them on-and-off and on numerous violins of mine over the years, so I know how fuzzy they can sound as they age. It was time to replace my strings after they began to go false a month prior to the time of this review. I don’t really care for many of the latest synthetic offerings from Pirastro(yes, I’ve tried them all) partly because none of them have seemed to last very long for me and quickly lost their tone/brilliance, and also because of their rigidity under the left hand relative to that of anything I’ve tried before from Thomastik-Infeld. My experience with all of Larsen’s offerings has been very similar, although the Larsens do seem to have a bit more complexity than most other brands. I have always especially liked the flexibility of Dominants in going all the way up the fingerboard without putting the sound into a crunchy choke-hold(I’m looking at you, @Pirastro). I also figured that since other string lines from Thomastik-Infeld would feel similar in sound and playability, I would do some research on the Peter Infeld set- having never tried them before and yet, always wanting to do so- which brings me full-circle to now with these new strings. They arrived rather quickly and I’ve played them nonstop since installing them, so they’re pretty well settled and broken in by now(less than 2 days). In short: WOW. I’ve played for well over 14 years now and have tried literally every popular synthetic string on the market, and so coming from Dominants to Peter Infeld strings was the best decision I’ve made musically for my playing in a very long time. They are so powerful, responsive, clear and yet rich, and all of the strings seem to augment the natural vibrations of one another no matter where I play on the fingerboard of any one of them. The platinum E string actually sounds brilliant and full, and I personally haven’t noticed any whistling when transitioning from the A string. No need to substitute a different E string for this set, as it matches well on my violin. These strings are everything I like about Dominants and so much more! There’s also familiarity about these strings that reminds me of the core sound of the original Dominants, though, if anything, they’re FAR more refined and nuanced than the latter. I can really dig in with the bow and get a nice attack without the sound breaking or crunching. I can’t even tell that they’re higher tension, either; because of this, I am able to play in the highest reaches up the fingerboard on any of the strings, and the G string in particular doesn’t sound choked in the highest positions in any way, whatsoever. It only sounds gutsier. My violin sounds even more vibrant than it did when I fell in love with it, and I think I just found my new favorite strings. I realize that every violin’s string preference is as different as that of its owner’s, but I do hope others will feel the same way about these wonderful strings once they’ve tried them for themselves! I know I don’t regret it.

Muy buena calidad

These strings came on my violin when I bought it. When it came time to replace them, I went with another brand-big mistake! I wondered what was wrong with my violin. I ended up removing those strings and buying another set of PI strings. There’s the sound I remember! These strings are bold and powerful, with great projection without being excessively bright. Just as important, they tune up easily, settle in fast, and hold their tune like no other set of strings I’ve used. The only downside here is the price. These are not cheap strings, but I found the price here to be the best I’ve found. In their favor, they do last a long time, which mitigates the high price a bit.

Are you still reading this? Buy these strings.

My new choice of string after my luthier, Rafael Carrabba recommended them after a tune up. I’ve been working a lot on solo Bach recently, about 3-4 hours a day, and my previous choice of strings were the Obligatos and Evahs, which both sound very nice and are very stable, but after a couple weeks of crunching chords and fast movements with multi-string crossings, they lose their responsiveness, as in drops off all of a sudden, making me wonder where my technique has gone. Other repertoire and orchestral stuff is still fine, but with Bach, getting chord after chord to speak immediate and pure, or that one note on the G string to come out quick and focused got frustrating. Pop on new Evahs and my technique seems to come back magically, but after another two weeks of sweetness, its gone again. These Pi’s a revelation to me, I’ve tried the the other Thomastik brands like the Vision line, they didn’t compare in sound the the Evahs. The Pi’s have a ever so slightly more focused sound to me than the Evahs, but nonetheless rich and powerful, and stable tuning like the Evahs, but I’ve been mashing chords on these Pi’s for two months now and they still sound great and STILL have that immediate response I need for something like the Bach Sonata 3 Adagio. For anyone that uses the Evahs or Obligatos I highly recommend giving this string a try, and at this price I almost don’t want anyone else to buy up this stock, wherever they getting it from because it’s at least $30 cheaper than anywhere else for this set with Silver D and Platinum E ball, the ball that is easily, carefully, removed to provide a loop end.