Thomastik Violin Strings (VIT100)

The set I ordered arrived today on time. However, it came with a broken E string! I needed a new set to get ready for the event this weekend. Now I have to use my old E string.

Gute Qualität. Bin ich sehr zufrieden.

this string would not stay in tune , after 3 days of constant fighting to get in tune I decided to return and get a Dominant A string. I have never had this problem with this Manufacturer before so I withheld a lower rating.

I tried these on a couple of different fiddles. They sounded very nice on my early 19th century Hopf, which has a naturally dark tone. I am a fiddle player with 40 years of playing behind me, and I play mostly Old Time and Celtic. for Irish Airs and Old Time Waltzes they were beautiful sounding with a rich sound with lots of harmonics. My Hopf has a strong deep bass and these strings kept that and added harmonic overtones to it. Lovely to hear. However, on upbeat fiddle tunes playing double stops, these strings were a bit much. There was just too much complexity going on. It just wasn’t as clean as I like. I put my Dominants back on and fiddling sounded much cleaner, at least to my tastes.

The other fiddle I tried them with was a pre- WWII German trade fiddle (real nice looking with one piece back). This fiddle has a brighter tone than my Hopf and is less dynamic sounding. The Titanium Solos were just too bright for this one. Lacked warmth. I have tried both Infeld Reds and Dominants on it and both are better with the Dominants being a bit better than the reds. Just for kicks, I put the Titanium Solos on an early 70’s Ton Klar student instrument had a set of Obbligatos on it. Took the T-Solos right back off. Could have made ones ears bleed. 🙂 The Obbligatos at least sounded nice on it (strings probably worth more than the fiddle).

In conclusion I think these are very good strings for a full bodied warm sounding violin being used in Classical Music or other music that doesn’t use a lot of quick double stops. They are quite loud, a bit louder than any of the other strings I have, and would take a loud instrument and really kick out. I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 because these require just the right instrument and music style instead of being a universal string like Dominants.

I am going to try Tonicas and Zyex next to see if they can outdo the Dominants on either of these two fiddles.

[EDIT-update] In the fall of 2016 the neck pulled lose from my early 19th century Hopf fiddle, so used my trade fiddle until I finally put the neck back of the Hopf in December 2017. I increased the neck angle for a taller bridge (had a very short bridge before). Now the Vision Titanium Solos sound much better, with the complexity of tone on fast double stop fiddling being much better without losing the beautiful tone on slower tunes. For this particular violin, I’d go with a 5 star now.

I am a professional violinist in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been performing here for over 25 years. A violinist colleague of mine, whose opinion I highly value, recommended these strings to me about a year ago, said he really loved them. I bought a set and have been using them ever since and just LOVE them. I previously used the popular Thomastic medium gauge Dominants for many many years and always liked the bright clear sound and relatively quick break in time. However I didn’t like how they sounded so metallic and almost too bright at first, then warmed up a bit as the weeks went by and they got broken in. However, after the break in time when the warmer, sweet sound evolves, it eventually fades and they start to sound really flat and blah. These Vision strings do not have the same issues. They don’t sound really bright and metallic at first, they are warm and colorful the moment you put them on, yet still have beautiful clarity and response. There is virtually no break in time. I have had them on my violin for about 6 months now and they still sound fantastic, warm, clear, responsive, definitely not “blah”. The are definitely the best strings out there in my opinion. I realize not all strings work on all violins, so they may not be the best for your instrument, however I would be surprised if you weren’t as thrilled with these strings as I am.

La cuerda de mi se me acaba de romper luego de 5 meses de uso moderado/bajo. Hablamos de que practico a lo mucho 3h a la semana, y mi violín permanece en un lugar resguardado sin cambios de temperatura/humedad bruscos, así que solo le puedo adjudicar a las cuerdas, de por si suenan un tanto extrañas, pero no le di mayor importancia.
En otras ocasiones las cuerdas vission me pueden durar 2-3 años y ahora en pocos meses de uso se me rompe la cuerda de mi, penoso.

Good value for professional performers’ strings and not overpriced (Evah Pirastro ;)). Whilst changing the first string, the sound difference with the unchanged strings just from a pizzicato was astounding. Would buy again next time I need new ones.