3-D Printed Ball End

Musical strings need to be attached to the instrument, and the traditional technique to accomplish this is a knot at the end to hold it in the tailpiece (instructions for tying a unique knot developed by Gamut Music are on every Academie string package). But, the repetitive task of tying knots has taken its toll on the hands of our workshop staff over the years, and being a small shop, changes to production must be considered occasionally to make the best use of our most precious resource: Time.

Therefore, we have devised a better solution to the knot: a 3-D printed plastic ball end. This secures the string at the tailpiece with ease and elegance without the need of a knot. 

All Tricolore violin and viola strings come with a ball end by default, and most Academie strings have the option to include a ball end (gut/metal-wound strings come with ball ends, as it is integral to the winding process). 

Stopping end washers are still available for large instrument strings (and gut/metal-wound strings for those instruments come with stopping end washers by default).

We hope that this innovation proves useful to players who, like us, are also tired of tying string knots.