I have a 17” viola strung as a fiddle. What I did is throw the C string into the bin and move the other three down one. Then I put a 008 gauge guitar string on the E. It was very weak and out of balance with the other three so I changed it to a 009 which is much better but still not quite there. I can compensate for it with the bow but that’s not ideal. I don’t know this but I feel that the total tension is getting near the limit for the fiddle and/or the E string may not take a much higher string gauge without breaking. So I purchased two different types of 0095’s. D’Addario PL0095 & D’Addario NYS0095. They claim that the NY’s are stronger, smoother, have less tension and last longer. I’m worried about the smoothness bit for bowing, maybe the bow won’t get as much grip as the plain .0095. Does any of you have experience with guitar E strings and particularly the New Yorks? I got 3 of each plus a few NY.010s.
Pirastro Wondertone E
I removed the .009 & replaced it with a .0095 plain and it seems to have done the trick. The E no longer feels weak. It seemed like there is a margin there because it seemed to get to pitch comfortably (I brought it up from F# over a period of 2hrs). I might try the New York .0095 next string change to see what the difference is.
Sounds like you might be on the right track. It's an unusual problem. I looked to see if there was any help online, but couldn't find anything. Thomastik has an info page about using violin strings on a viola, but they're talking about usng violin strings (G,D and A) on fractional sized violas, tuned like a viola, with a special C string (from a set for 5 string fiddles).
You could aso try the .010 string if the tension works. Also, the much bigger body of a 17 inch viola might not support the high E, probably not as well as a violin.
Good luck!
Edited by - DougD on 07/30/2024 07:21:33
quote:
Originally posted by DougDSounds like you might be on the right track. It's an unusual problem. I looked to see if there was any help online, but couldn't find anything. Thomastik has an info page about using violin strings on a viola, but they're talking about usng violin strings (G,D and A) on fractional sized violas, tuned like a viola, with a special C string (from a set for 5 string fiddles).
You could aso try the .010 string if the tension works. Also, the much bigger body of a 17 inch viola might not support the high E, probably not as well as a violin.
Good luck!
The topic of using guitar strings for the E on a regular fiddle came up on the maestronet forum a while back and there are quite a few fiddle players using Savarez gypsie guitar.010's on their fiddles. I tried it and it worked great when I was playing a 4/4 fiddle but now I'm playing this 17" monster with a string length of about 15". I'm afraid that either the.010 would break or the tailgut would break (that has happened a few times). I've played the .0095 for over an hour today and I'm happy with it. I usually play a tenor viola which is a GDAE instrument tuned down an octave. It has an18" back so I don't like the idea of switching to a 14" so that's why I've set up the 17" with the high tuning
