Have you ever picked up an instrument and wondered what strings were on it? We have so many wonderful options from so many manufacturers that it can be difficult to know what’s what. Thomastik, Pirastro, D’Addario, Larsen, Jargar, etc – each manufacturer does things a little differently. Sometimes, even more confusingly, they do them very similarly! One thing we hear from students is that their teacher told them to get “the purple strings”. While we often look at the silking color by the tailpiece, in this case “the purple strings” are purple at the peg end – the nearly ubiquitous Thomastik Dominant strings. Cellists can spot the gold and navy colors of Larsen strings from across the room while professional violinists know the green and black of Pirastro Evah Pirazzi strings. The new Thomastik Versum cello strings have a beautiful shade of solid green for the tailpiece end silking. What are some of your favorites?
I have 2 violin strings with black tailpiece ends and red peg box ends. The tailpiece end has a loop which looks like gut but too stiff and white for gut, I think.
Could you guess what brand these would be?
I can’t find anything like them in the many charts I’ve just surveyed.
Greetings! Have these strings been on the instrument for a while? What you are describing sounds like an older gut string. If you’re looking for a replacement, you could try some of the more gut-like synthetic-core strings available on the market. Feel free to email me at jrihani@encoreorchestral.com if you have additional questions.
so I have a question? What strings does Anne Sophie mutter use for her A and E string.I know that her a string is purple at the tailpiece and she uses a viola a string,But what a string.And also her e string is yellow at the tailpiece.Thankyou!
This might be old information, but I believe she used a Dominant G (medium), and Dominant silver D (medium), and Corelli Crystal viola A (light), and a Kaplan Golden Spiral E. What an amazing violinist!
Hi! I found an old cello G string, and I can’t remember what brand it is. I put it in my new cello and just LOVED it. I’d love to buy new ones from the same brand.
They are red on both edges. MAYBE the tailpiece edge had a blue line over the red fabric. It could be the Jargar Forte, but nowadays I think it’s red on the tailpiece, but blue on the other edge…
Bruno, hello! If it is red on both ends it is likely Thomastik Spirocore. If it has red and blue silking at the tailpiece end and red silking at the peg end, it might be D’Addario Pro-Arte. I hope this helps!
Hello! I purchased a nice used cello a few months back. I have been able to figure out the brands of three bottom strings, but I am having trouble figuring out what the A string is. The tailpiece end is green, and the peg end is a light blue. Thank you!
Hello! The third picture down are the strings I have on my violin. Red with black winding by the tail then by the scroll G – brown, D – pink, A – black and E – green. Any ideas what they are? Thanks!
I believe those would be Pirastro Obligato. I hope this helps!
I have a set of viola strings with all tailpieces being purple.
The A string =Black tipped
The D String=Yellow Tipped
The G String=Red Tipped
The C String=Magenta Tipped
If someone knows the brand name of these strings-could you contact me by email listed.
Thank you.
Those are Peter Infelds ☺️?
This is so helpful thank you. Would you know what string is a light greyish blue? It’s a quarter size violin and I only have GDA, would like to purchase matching E. thank you!
Thanks for writing! If you can send me photos at hello@encoreorchestral.com, I can help identify those for you. A picture at the tailpiece and at the pegbox is helpful. Thank you!
Also on another quarter size I have green G with red at peg, all red D, all black A, all red E. they are nice strings, at least they make my kids playing sound nice, which is difficult
Please help me identify the strings on the used violin I recently purchased. The tailpiece black /green ends clearly identify the GDA strings as Pirastro Evah Pirazzi but the peg ends make no sense. It is black on the G string, violet/purple on the D and yellow/gold on the A. The E string is clearly a Pirastro gold on steel.
Gayle, that is a head-scratcher because the peg end would normally be brown for the G, pink for the D, and black for the A. If you want to send me photos via email, I’m happy to take a look for you.
Hello! This is really helpful, thank you for doing this! I was wondering if you could help me identify the brands for the strings on my violin? I have an a, d, and g string with a red and black tail end (the same as those in the third picture), and an e string with a solid dark blue tail.