D'Addario Zyex Violin Single A String, 4/4 Scale, Medium Tension

My strings had long been dead on my violin, and weren't great before they died either. They were far too bright and tinny, with a cutting, flat, and piercing sound. I decided on synthetic core strings because I thought that would help add depth to the violin and mellow it out a bit. My price range wasn't quite in the ballpark of Dominants, so I decided to go with these strings, even though nobody I knew played with them before. In particular I chose the silver D set because as the cello is my primary instrument, I'm a sucker for a hearty low end sound.First impression was that the A scared the crap out of me when stringing it up. The combination of a silk core and an aluminum wrapping makes the string feel like it is ready to snap while tuning. I had made sure to well lubricate the nut and bridge with a pencil before stringing, but it still had a horrible feeling to it. I got the string up to about a G, at which point the change in pitch relative to the amount I turned the peg dropped off, the exact sign that your string is getting ready to fail. After quadruple checking that it was indeed an A string, I finally just decided to bring it up to pitch. It got there eventually, but not without a large amount of sweat and nervous swearing on my part.The other strings went on just fine, and I got to play it for the first time. Immediately I noticed a huge increase in the sound from even when my last strings were new. The silver low end did exactly what I wanted, it brought out the deeper tones of the violin and made it sing clear and rich. The aluminum A takes a bit of getting used to, it has a tackier texture than that of a silver or chrome wound string, but the sound from it is surprisingly good. Unlike my last A which was shrill and piercing, this A has a lot more restraint in the sound. Warm and rich it matches the silver D and G particularly well on my violin. The E I feel is nothing to write home about, but is not the worst E I've played on. Perhaps it is the cellist in me talking, but nearly every E I've played hasn't been to my liking. However, the E provided blends moderately well, and while lacking the mellowing qualities of the lower strings, let's face it, who wants an E to mellow?Bow response is good, with the aluminum A being a tiny bit slower than the others. The difference is hardly perceivable while playing though, and it does not at all keep the A from slowing down a fast passage. The biggest thing to overcome will be shifting on the A, those who are used to harder metal windings may find it a bit unsettling at first, but good finger tip calluses will help with that.Overall these are great strings for someone looking for a powerful yet a bit more soothing sound. I recommend the silver D and G in particular, as the low end of violins seems to be a bit overlooked. If you can get these strings with a bit better E I would advise it, but the supplied E will do just fine if not.

These strings are my only choice for acoustic fiddle. The Silver D works great for me. The aluminum A Sounds best (better than silver or titanium) but is the first string to wear out. Nothing lasts forever. They are great and I will always use them as long as they are available.

This is the second time I've bought these after making the decision to only ever by these strings, and after reflecting on how happy I was with them, was inspired to come rant about them here in the form of writing.Miserable history of string use:I started with Classical violin and now predominantly play traditional Irish music, originally with D'Addario Helicore (fairly balanced, easy response) as my default string. One year I got fancy and decided I'd be a sucker and purchase the overly priced Pirastro Evah Pirazzis solely for the cool image design of the ladies face and rolling locks against the green background. Well, even though I saved the cool design string pouch, I ditched the Pirazzi strings. Even though they had a vibrant sound that may pay off with a mega high end instrument in a classical setting, they were not warm in tone or have any interesting depth (and as others often note the E string was kind of tin-y). Searching for warmth I tried Pirastro's other over priced product, the Obligatos. These also were nothing to write home to mom about.The happy ending:Finally I tried the Zyex, based on the reviews here which pointed to their rich tone, and my initial positive experience with D'Addario--and wow! Way better than the strings I tried that were three times the cost.-The response off the bow is lovely-The break in time is almost non-existent- I put them on before a band practice, and felt like normalafter an hour of jamming-Again, the warmth of the tone- I find myself playing better just to sap out the rich tone that I am not usedto being exposed toGreat strings!

I've been playing violin for 17 years now. I usually use either Evah Pirazzis or Tomastik Vision Solos for my instrument, but I heard good things about the Zyex so I decided to give them a try. The lower price was also a factor in my decision as well.My lord I don't know whether it's the synthetic core or what, but this string caused my instrument to PROJECT like it was nobody's business. It was like I turned the volume dial from 50% to 100%. It was really a nice surprise to hear that because my instrument is not a professional one by any stretch of the imagination. It's one I got when I was a student in 2008. It's only an intermediate student violin and it had a lot of power with the Zyex strings that I never knew it could have.Unfortunately, this new projection and power came at the cost of tone quality. There are a lot of songs that require a more sweet tone, and this string on my instrument really caused it to lose a lot more of the sweet sound quality than I would've liked. That's why I'm only giving it 4 stars and not 5.You can't deny it's a great value for the sound that you'll get, and if you don't know whether you want to take the jump to $100 Evah Pirazzis and the like, this string is a great intermediate option that allows you to test your violin's capability and whether you think a more expensive and better sounding string would be a sound investment (no pun intended). Definitely worth a try because it's different for every instrument and player!