Posted by fiddlepogo on Saturday, September 12, 2015
It's been another rough month. Lots of back pain, other health issues. I spent a lot of time flat on my back in bed.
Listened to a LOT of CDs, mostly Irish and Bluegrass. I did not do a whole lot of practicing.
I've had the new Pirastro Tonicas for more than a month. First, I was having a hard time deciding which fiddle to put them on. For one thing, the old Tonicas really weren't sounding BAD. I'm very much about "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"... well, MOST of the time.
The lack of practice and a change in the weather finally tipped the balance on the old strings... they didn't sound bad, they were just no longer strong enough to shake the fiddle enough. My ears have been plugged up for a while, and Booker, my main fiddle was getting hard to hear in some rooms.
Last night, I made myself pull Booker out and play, since I have a gig tomorrow. Once 9:00 pm rolled around and I had to stop playing, I'd made up my mind, it was time for Booker to get the new strings. So I changed them, and then, I went to bed fairly early.
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling pretty good (that's been unusual lately) and not sleepy at all. So I took Booker and the digital tuner downstairs for a practice session in the men's restroom in the lobby like I used to do.
Tuned the new Tonicas up, and WOW! I really DO like Tonicas.
Booker will still need some playing in, since it had "closed up" some, but it really has a much bigger voice- maybe twice as loud. And I'm going to have to get used to playing with that bigger voice.
The thing with the Tonicas is that they never really sound BAD.... they just get softer and softer. So it's not an obvious thing as to when it's time to change them.
1 comment on “New strings- finally!”
MikeM70 Says:
Thursday, October 8, 2015 @9:44:48 AM
now that's an interesting comment about getting softer and softer. I noticed that about mine, but assumed it was me as I've been a bit bunged up recently (some sort of hay fever type reaction, even the cats have had it). I'm still scared about changing strings though.
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