PirastroTonica up to 16.5 inch Viola String Set Medium

I play violin, viola and cello in classical, Irish, Scottish, OT and some bluegrass genres. Here is my two cents, and, when it comes to strings, everything anyone tells you has a certain observer bias built in so take it all with a grain of salt. Obviously an engineer employed at a major manufacturing house, or a world famous solo violinist may have some wisdom which would carry some gravitas but in general string theory is largely a matter of personal preference.The tone of Tonica's is excellent and perhaps on your instrument, superb. Much depends upon the match between string and violin. However, I have seen far more accomplished violinists than myself perform on Pirastro Tonica's. This includes for instance my friend Paul who is the conductor of the reading orchestra at a prestigious Christian college. He gave a recital a few years ago for the local classical music club. Yes, I was a bit surprised at that time because most of the professional orchestra players are using Dominants, at least, Thomastik Visions and other more exotic strings which cost as much as $125-150 dollars.Yes in good times I too have succumbed to the lure of trying out all manner of strings, even those gut strings for playing in a baroque quartet. But these Pirastro's have such a mellow tone on my "dark" violin that they really sound as good as my Dom's albeit perhaps not for quite such a long time. Purely subjective on this point though how does one really conduct bench testing on such things? One thing I feel pretty secure in stating though is that it does take a few days for the Tonica's to break in and you might have to do a bit of fine tuning. If you have a concert this evening and you need a string change, I don't know that other strings are necessarily any better, or which strings are more solid in this respect - probably a steel core string some kind of fiddler stings. Perhaps Prims or those D'Addarios' might be more ready-to-rock out of the box. But if you have the luxury of some practice time, and a tight budget, you will get plenty of bang for your buck with these. I might be dead wrong on the longevity matter and here is why: because Tonica's are so affordable compared to the competing strings, I am more likely to toss them when they are slightly aged. The more expensive strings I want to get every penny out of them and am more likely to extend their service life.You owe it to yourself to try these out if price is a factor. And if money is not object you will still want to try these out and may find that they are just as good or better than others on your particular instrument.Enjoy experimenting!

I am using the strings in a chinese viola that has an inusual deep sound for this instruments. I am very happy with this strings. They feel soft in your fingers but sound rich. The A string is specially nice. The one I like the least is the G, that I find does not sound as round as the C. It may be my viola soundpost. For the money I think this is a great product.

These sound really good on my viola! It originally came with cheap no name strings and I badly needed to upgrade them. I currently use dominants on my violin, but was trying to avoid spending that much on strings for my viola at this time. These were a fantastic compromise. My viola’s C string sounds amazing and the rest of the strings sound better than the comparable strings on my violin. Will definitely consider other Pirastro strings for my viola when I’m ready to move up from these.

I bought these since they're half the price of Dominants. They don't sound like Dominants at all (I think the Dominants are more vibrant), but I really love them! On my viola, they are softer than dominants, but not too soft. My son fell in love with them and wants to replace his Dominants with them- and HALF THE PRICE!

These strings are really warm and resonant.

I don't like these so much on violin, but on viola pretty nice. Happy with the C string and the feel, broke in fairly fast and without that Dominant ringing that's kinda annoying. I have no idea why amazon wants you to rate "sheerness" of these. They are fairly textured and lean a tad dark of center, but just a tad.

I was hoping that these might be a good budget alternative for when I wasn’t doing major concerts or as strings to recommend for students but unfortunately I have found them to be genuinely terrible. They have an incessant raspy tone which did not resolve as the strings broke in. They also stretch significantly more than any other strings I’ve used and I could never really get them to stay in tune. I do not recommend these at all. They will frustrate experienced players and limit the progress of students.

Good quality and great sound.