Why are violin strings so expensive!?
The technology and precision machining that goes into string manufacture for string instruments is vast and expensive to start with – think of 007’s science lab. The materials that they are made from are also costly, not only because the metals and materials must be of finest quality but also because of the complicated manufacture processes needed to make reliable and excellent sounding music, once tuned up on any violin.
Today’s musician has become accustomed to strings that MUST deliver it ALL in one bow stroke … they DEMAND colour, vibrancy, power, timbre, fast responsiveness, crisp notes wrapped in full bodied tonality, all at ONCE:)
That is quite a chunk to have to chew on when designing, developing and investigating materials that need to line up for a whole-in-one. This takes years to achieve for each and every string brand’s ranges, each with different gauges (tensions) for uniquely different instruments. [See Regulated Irregularities]
Lastly, for us to make it available when you need it means – Importing, taxes and plenty of time to stock a single brand with an entire range (or at least most of it) for you to choose from is … costly.
Svencino pledges to mitigate these costs as far as we can, ensuring that you can have them for as little as possible – and sent directly to your door or *[classroom].
*Teachers (and schools) who are signed up with our [String Explorer] can order strings that we will bring along to your class where we give a Q&A session about stings, fitting them on, how to look after them and Voicing (regulating the sound post to improve on sound).
When strings were made with Gut they all had a knot tied with a loop at the bottom. This was used to loop the string through at the tailpiece or secured in the ‘key hole’ in the tailpiece.
With the addition of fine tuners and different designs of tailpieces and fine tuners, and of course the strings themselves, it became necessary to create different user options. This, for a long time meant that you could choose between a ball end that holds the string in place (in the tailpiece or fine tuner fork) or a loop that is held by a fine tuner hook.
For versatility some string makers make strings that have a ball on the E string which can be removed if your string requires a loop to hook onto the fine tuner. Of course this is only possible to do with a steel string.
Natural gut and other synthetic strings are not possible to do this with because of the material nature which determines how it is attached to the ball on the end.