I have just got my violin down from the loft, having not played it for about 20 years. It's not a very good quality one, but it needs new strings. I was about grade 6 level 20 years ago, and will obviously be right back at the bottom now! I've just got a set of Dominant strings for my cello and love them. Should I get a set of Dominant strings for the violin? or can anyone recommend anything else?

To be honest after 20 years, the best thing you can do is take it to a luthier and have an overhaul done - it may need a new bridge, and soundpost - it will certainly need some work done on the set up after all this time and the advantage of doing this is that the luthier will choose and fit the strings that work best for your fiddle, which may even be a blend of brands, rather than one specific brand.

If, however, you don't want the expense and just fancy trying out some new strings, dominants are as good as any other - they're a popular string of reasonable quality - you'll probably want a different e string, though.

Why do you change the E string? what make would be ok with the dominants then? i'm buying a violin with dominants and i've ordered an extra set to keep as spare. Can someone explain why? Thanks.

It's personal preference really. A lot of people think that the Dominant E strings aren't particularly pleasant sounding, and so buy a different E string. It depends on the violin/player though.

I like the Dominants (including the E): although I've been playing with them for so long I couldn't really advise on other types!
Does it sometimes depend on the type of violin - the particular tone you get from it?

Yes, it depends greatly on the type of violin. I recently put dominants on mine, but they're not going to stay on long! Even after playing in, it sounds scratchy and just not the same as when I used helicores. Come back, helicores, all is forgiven!

I have Dominants but don't like the E string because I had to replace it so often as they seem to wear out very quickly. I now use Dominants with an Obligato E string and I'm happy with that but will probably experiment shortly by changing the others to Obligatos.

Thanks for all your help. I realised afterwards that this has been discussed elsewhere, so thanks for advice! I will probably go with a set of dominants for starters, and see what my teacher says.

I think dominants are fine, but I wear through my strings unusually quickly, so I use an Obligato E string (they seem to last much longer) and a Dominant Silver D - which makes it more like the G string rather than the A string. The Silver D sounds nice too in my opinion.

Does anyone know how much a set of dominant strings usually cost?
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Google is your friend

£25.96 here

Shop around though you might find them cheaper, especially from the US as the pound is strong against the dollar.

Thanks they aren't for me, we were thinking of getting some as a present from our orchestra for the leader. Was just wondering about how much they are .
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