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  #1  
Old 05-02-2018, 04:30 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Default Do Violin strings break easily

Have not snapped one yet. How high can they tune too?
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Old 05-02-2018, 06:50 PM
lfoo6952 lfoo6952 is offline
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I am not an everyday player but I’ve had my violin for 5 years now and never had a string break on me. I’ve had the bow hairs break a lot until I learned the reason. Due to mites that feed on the hair. Since vacuuming my case, no more breakage.
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Old 05-02-2018, 09:56 PM
Mandobart Mandobart is offline
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Not usually. I've been playing violin and viola for over 40 years and never broke a string while playing or tuning. However, I've had some speciality Sensicore Octave violin strings break with my fiddle in the case with a damp-it. I think the excessive humidity swelled the wood, grew the neck and bang! I also snapped the center D string on a 5 string viola simply by loosening the other 4 strings. As you loosen strings, there is less force pulling the pegbox toward the bridge, so the neck relaxes toward the back. This actually raises the tension on the strings.
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Old 05-02-2018, 09:58 PM
Mandobart Mandobart is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitar344 View Post
Have not snapped one yet. How high can they tune too?
I have tuned many violin and viola strings up one whole step with no issues. YMMV.
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Old 05-02-2018, 11:29 PM
Paraclete Paraclete is offline
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Uh, how much higher than standard tuning were you hoping for? Short answer would be no. I’ve broken strings. But it’s not like the ball ends of my electric strings breaking off when I was blues bending. It’s always been the wound strings, and always a matter of the winding popping, rather than the whole string breaking. It’s always happened from either excessive wear or defective strings. Considering how much good strings cost (>$50/set), I’ve never found a good reason to see how high I can tighten them before they break. Never had an interest in adding that sort of tension to a fine instrument anyway.
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Old 05-03-2018, 12:55 AM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paraclete View Post
Uh, how much higher than standard tuning were you hoping for? Short answer would be no. I’ve broken strings. But it’s not like the ball ends of my electric strings breaking off when I was blues bending. It’s always been the wound strings, and always a matter of the winding popping, rather than the whole string breaking. It’s always happened from either excessive wear or defective strings. Considering how much good strings cost (>$50/set), I’ve never found a good reason to see how high I can tighten them before they break. Never had an interest in adding that sort of tension to a fine instrument anyway.
At least three notes.
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Old 05-03-2018, 05:07 AM
815C 815C is offline
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I've been playing fiddle for over 40 years and can only remember a string breaking one time. Unfortunately it was during a gig on a slow instrumental waltz which featured the fiddle.
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Old 05-03-2018, 02:11 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Violin strings break about as easily as dulcimer strings do.
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Old 05-05-2018, 05:55 PM
Paraclete Paraclete is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitar344 View Post
At least three notes.
I think the added tension on the instrument would be more of an issue than the string. But also, at that tension, string might not last as long. Super sensitives, which are steel, are pretty stout. Perlon, gut, and other soft core strings are more prone to popping , usually at the end windings.
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Kelii soprano ukulele
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Old 05-06-2018, 09:50 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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If you're looking to tune three steps higher for ensemble-playing purposes, why not get yourself a 1/4 - 1/2-size violin; same idea as a terz guitar in practice - the smaller body is probably more compatible tonally with the higher pitch, less overall tension on the instrument, shouldn't be too hard to adapt to the closer finger spacing, and IMO more practical in the long run...

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