What do you go for when you pick strings for an exam or audition in a smallish room?

Just about time to change strings on son Viohazard's new(ish) violin, and his exam could be in a month if it's scheduled early. He calls his violin Aeos, after one of the high-spirited flying horses that pull the chariot of the sun, so it has a good loud voice when it wants!

Aeos came strung with Obligatos several years old, but they were very dull, especially on the upper strings, and he currently uses Dominants with a Goldbrokat E - good, but the E does sound a bit weak and out of balance, and the A could be sweeter.

He was thinking of trying Infeld blue on at least some of the strings, but listening to him practicing 2-3 metres away from me suddenly made me realize how LOUD his new violin is - and wondering if "loud and brilliant" would really be a wise choice for a smallish, echoey exam room. The violin is powerful rather than harsh - his teacher was saying how good it sounded last week, but that was in a cork-lined room with carpet and curtains!

Is it worth considering that the examiner will be much closer than a normal audience when choosing strings? Or just think of the nature of the instrument? Also, any specific advice for those A and E strings?

Pirastro Violino might be an option. They offer a darker sound and will 'tone down' the rather more brash sounding violins. Use these on the G, D and A.

E strings, I'd recommend a Hill E (medium) - low risk of squeaking and a nice tone to them as well.

Violino - will have to search those out. Are they darker than the Obligatos it came with, for example, or than Infeld Reds?

Viohazard himself wants "a strong, solid beam of light" for the top strings, and something "broad and deep" that suits the already deep and rich bottom strings (much richer than when he first "auditioned" it). "Kind of sticky" is how he describes the sound he wants from the G string!

I thought that the old set of Obligatos emphasized the bottom but didn't support the top of the range, but maybe the strings were just old - and regardless of strings, the violin itself sounded a lot more balanced after a soundpost adjustment too!

Hill E - I will take that advice thank you, as it's going to be cheaper to order strings by mail than to buy them in Japan at current dollar/yen exchange rates. I've never seen Hill strongs for sale here - might just be looking in the wrong places of course.

Still need to get some Violinos to try, but meanwhile, he's had a "motley" set on, and the Infeld Blue he had no the D string was the best of the lot!

Since the violin came with Obligatos, Viohazard thought that the warmer strings would probably work best, but the Infeld Blue added a little clarity and smoothness (and not the harshness that he was worried about).

He wants to buy another Hill E to put aside before he uses the one we got in an E-string "sampler set"!

The zingiest e-string of the assortment was a Jarger - sounded hair-raising the day it was put on, but by the next day, it had settled down and was clean as well as powerful. For a "loud" violin, a good "pay attention to ME!" string which was not overpowered by the lower strings, but maybe not for a small room!

Still working on this - taking about 3 weeks per string, with a solid practice schedule! It is certainly not the case that "old favourite" strings are automatically the best choice for a different instrument. The old instrument was about 50-60 years old, the new one 5-6 years, but not played until recently.

So far, happy with the Infeld Blue D/Infeld Red G. Blue G would work too, probably, but Viohazard loves the really fat sound of the Red G.

Larsen A is gone (too edgy, no sweetness or fullness on THIS violin), replaced by familiar friend Dominant A. Seems that Dominant will be fine here, just needs to be replaced more frequently as it seems to lose power and sweetness (and that special silvery A-string sound that makes me think of roses!) and sound "flat" after just a few weeks. Might be worth trying an Infeld Blue A...

E string - Oliv. Viohazard is totally in love with this, but at the price Oliv E strings are, it will be a "special" occasion treat, so he still needs to select an everyday choice from our selection. He used Lenzner Goldbrokat for years on his old violin, but with this one, the Goldbrokat doesn't seem to balance the lower strings - sounds sweet but feeble (not forgetting that the puny bow arm may have something to do with it!).