Books › The Violin: How to Master It, 1880 › scan 30
Scan 30
The Violin: How to Master It, 1880
10 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of varied-colored gut; are extremely handsome and higher in price than other Italian violin strings. They are now used by the Conservatories and many of the most prominent solo artists and violin teachers.
3It is very difficult to find a good G string that will not rattle after three days' use, and as those procured at this house are warranted, they can be most satisfactorily used. The No. 40 G is a very fine string sent by mail for twenty cents each. No. 48 pure silver, wound on Genuine Italian Colored Strings, I use myself both in solo and concert playing, as well as in teaching. The No. 48 is sent by mail for seventy-five cents each.
5Next to gut strings fall to be noticed silk strings, generally used only for the first. The good qualities of this string may be summed up in great durability in a warm room or steamy atmosphere, or with a player whose hand perspires. The tone is thin and wiry, and less sympathetic than that of a gut string, and the pressure being less on the bridge, the fingering if slightly different. This diminished pressure also affects the tone of the other strings injuriously. If the string be selected thick, it will increase the pressure somewhat, but it can never compare in tone with that of a good gut, and is much more difficult to tune — the least touch at the peg sending it up half a tone.
7Steel Strings.
9Their tone is metallic, it lacks the velvety softness of the gut string; besides it is always objectionable to have strings of a different kind on a violin. The sound of the open string is bad; harmonics come out very clearly, but the natural ones are not in tune. It has a disagreeable echo, and seems to vibrate in a sneaking way even when the other strings are played. The tone is clear and brilliant only with a strongly-pressed bow, and it is exceedingly difficult to tune. For playing in a hot ball-room or for an amateur who studies economy alone, these strings may do very well. They are said to last for many months, but I cannot speak on that point, as I removed the string after two days' testing. I may add that the moment a good Italian gut string was substituted, the other three strings acquired a more ringing, resonant and fluty quality of tone, as well as greater volume of sound, thus indicating that the metal first string, like the silk, acts injuriously on the tone of the other three.
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