Welcome to the Larsen String Club

[Adam R Sweet]

Who uses Larsen strings? What do you think of them? What are you doing to maximize their output?

[Nancy T H]

Bink, I unwound my E string at the peg end and measured it. The blue wrapping measures 5.5 inches, then there's the 3/8-inch red wrapping that you mentioned, then it's 14.5" open string, then the gold wrapping, which is just over 7/8" and then the loop end. Hope this helps. On the fiddle the gold wrapping at the tailpiece end stops an inch below the bridge, and as mentioned before, the end of the red wrapping is about 3/4-inch above the nut, inside the pegbox. How long is your string between the gold wrapping and the red one? I'm wondering if that is where it is too short.

Bink F. Williams said:

Thanks for helping. I just compared it to a Dominant e which is a full inch longer. However the peg end wrapping extends 1 3/4 inches past the Dominant wrapping. And even more strange, the last 3/8 in. is wound in red rather than green. This is the part that extends over the nut onto the fretboard. Anyone else string look like this. Want to be sure that I have an odd defective one before calling Howard Core. Bink

Nancy T H said:

Hi Bink, I have the Tzigane strings on my fiddle and I just measured the E from the loop end (not ball) to the beginning of the wrapping. It's 15.75 inches. I didn't unwind it to see how long it is from the other end but there's a good .75 inch from the lower part of the nut to where the wrapping starts.

Mary Margaret said:

Bink - Prodigy Instruments sells Tziganes individually. E String is $5.56

Bink F. Williams said:

Thanks for your quick reply. They said they only sold as a set and that even if they sent another string it would be the same length as the one that I have. Have you measured any of yours? They are ball end with four fine Thomastik fine tuners. Bink

Adam R Sweet said:

Southwest wouldn't replace it? Why not? What's their excuse? Geez

Is it a ball or loop end? Just curious. I'm wondering if that makes a difference.

[Bink F. Williams]

Hi, Nancy; Thanks so much for going to the trouble take your string off and measure it. On mine the blue wrapping is 5.75 in. plus the 3/8 in red. So that extra wrapping is what is causing it to come over the nut onto the fingerboard. The middle part is 14.5 and the ball end right at 7/8 in. So I don't know whether that is called defective or just poor quality control, but it is a shame because I really like the strings otherwise. Bink

[Adam R Sweet]

I'm amazed South West Strings wouldn't take it back and send you a replacement. Stunned actually.

[Ròidh]

hardy i am pondering something,i have a darker del gesu copy u may have heard me play in a video here at some point,anyhow i love what a dadarrio helicor does for this instrument but am haveing hell makeing them last ,this last set lasted two months maybe 16 hrs of play and the d and g string broke,im climate controlled and everything is in good order so no reason for the breakage ,i dont over tune them ither,anyhow im not rich but still figure if i can get a long while out of a better set it would be worth the cost,i noticed when i was online ebay there was tons of larsen solo for cello but not for violin so i have been looking at those titanium solo strings you mentioned and may be buying a set next month but wanted to get your opinion since you do alot of instrument work and are beter armed with info than most,i want the most i can get out of my instrument ,the jams are getting loud with accordians on cajun night so i want projection but am very picky on haveing a high quality sound not just loud, wishing you the best ,and thanks for the help !

Hardy Kefes said:

I have not tried Larsen yet.Though I'd like how they keep up with the strings I use.
I am not too happy with Dominants. Although many professional players and many old instruments are equipped with them. I find their sound kind of dull. They are OK and kind of reflect the instruments character in many cases, still, I always feel they are holding some back.
I tried Evah Pirazzi which are great strings. especially their E-string is wonderful. Clean and clear tones all the way up the fingerboard and also harmonics.
I tried also the Infeld Blue (in my opinion more in the bottom then dominant) , Infeld vision solo, even richer and brighter as the 'Blue' and my latest favorite are the Vision Solo Titanium. These strings sound extremely brilliant, balanced and rich on lower strings. The E-string sounds wonderful, not as bright as an gold string but it tends to squeek under certain conditions and unpredictably which bothers me. So, either I use the evah-gold or I find the perfect E-string.
I'd like to try the Larson out on several old instruments (18th century) as well as on my precious 2008 Wang violin.
Did anyone compare Larsen (string by string) to the Evahs or the solo-titaniums?

[Nancy T H]

Progress report: It's been about 6 months since I put on the Larsen Tziganes and they're still going strong. They've weathered the accumulated wear and tear of 1-2 fiddle jams a week, a week outdoors at fiddle camp in August, a weekend intensive workshop a week later, and an average of 50-60 minutes of daily practicing. I'm impressed! I do need to disclose that I had to replace the A string at some point early in the summer because it had sustained a sharp blow (I don't know when or how it happened) and had a serious dent in the wrapping which caused it to play false notes. I see the G now has a similar dent but it doesn't seem to affect it as badly as it did the A string, so I'll hold off on that one until I replace all the strings, probably sometime later this fall or winter. For now, I'm still very happy with the way they sound. I have continued to wipe them carefully after every playing session so there's minimal rosin build-up, and if I notice that the tone seems "mushy" a quick wipe seems to solve that problem. So that's it for now.

[Nancy T H]

OK, well, it's only been a week or so since I wrote that last note and I have changed my strings today. The D was basically shot--it sounded dead and even occasionally as if there was no rosin on the bow--very weird. I probably could have slid by a while longer but I'm very particular about the sound, and since I play for enjoyment, I think it should be as enjoyable as possible, right? I went with the Tziganes for the second time, and the new ones are a love-fest all over again. What a wonderful sound--I want to play and play and not stop.

Nancy T H said:

Progress report: It's been about 6 months since I put on the Larsen Tziganes and they're still going strong. They've weathered the accumulated wear and tear of 1-2 fiddle jams a week, a week outdoors at fiddle camp in August, a weekend intensive workshop a week later, and an average of 50-60 minutes of daily practicing. I'm impressed! I do need to disclose that I had to replace the A string at some point early in the summer because it had sustained a sharp blow (I don't know when or how it happened) and had a serious dent in the wrapping which caused it to play false notes. I see the G now has a similar dent but it doesn't seem to affect it as badly as it did the A string, so I'll hold off on that one until I replace all the strings, probably sometime later this fall or winter. For now, I'm still very happy with the way they sound. I have continued to wipe them carefully after every playing session so there's minimal rosin build-up, and if I notice that the tone seems "mushy" a quick wipe seems to solve that problem. So that's it for now.