Tricolore Gut Violin String Set

Good sound (gut is especially sympathetic to double-stops and harmonics), pitch stability is comparable to Dominants or Pirastro Passiones…I had to clip ~2 cm from the end of the D and rewind the A, both are so long they were creating issues with sticking on the pegs while tuning. Once I did that though, no issues. We’ll see how the next few weeks/months go, I’d really love to source a “local” string as I am in the US and as much as I love the European offerings, if we can get a quality, consistent string closer to home, I’m all for it.

Tricolore strings are simply excellent for my instrument as also my taste and needs as a violinist. I am unable to even consider using any other strings now, and I am very grateful that Gamut have gone to the trouble of manufacturing these wonderful strings once more. Thank you Gamut!

When I started violin in the early 1950’s my A string was plain gut. As a baroque violinist all my strings are gut, and I have been using a G and D from Larsen/Gamut on my baroque instrument with great success for some time now . So I was very interested in the Tricolore strings on my modern violin, particularly the G - so I ordered the set when it was recently on sale. Once on the violin, the string sounded very good - but getting it on was an ordeal: the 3-D printed plastic ball compressed and popped out of the tailpiece before I got anywhere near pitch. Ultimately I had to make my own leather washer to keep it in place. I am very happy with my three upper strings, and don’t want to change them. But the new G string is out of balance with them, so I have reverted to my previous setup. But it was an interesting experiment, and I applaud Gamut for making this set available. I woujd still consider it for a different violin when the occasion arises.

The heavy sized Tricolore violin strings are superb. IMO the only downside is that it takes a few days for them to first stretch out so that they’re tuning stable. But, after that, the tuning stability is great. And the heavies have a wonderful stiffness so that you can really lay into them and they keep giving you more, but they’re still wonderfully responsive with a light touch (the overtones when you play lightly are so rich, totally unmatched by synthetics!). I never want to play on strings with metal winding ever again. I’m an unwound-gut-for-life devotee. It’s been a couple years now and I see no reason to ever try synthetics again. I will say, though, that these benefit a lot from a responsive instrument and the right bowing technique. Especially in dry weather- if the strings are dry from low humidity they are very sensitive to tiny little details in your bowing that don’t come through at all on synthetic strings. When it’s humid out, they get a little softer and more forgiving. And lastly I have to say Tricolors last me longer than synthetics. My fingers must have a lot of sulfur in them or something because I kill the winding on any wound strings in two months or less. Heavy Tricolores last me four months easily. And, unwound gut strings don’t slowly go dead like wound synthetics. They age more gracefully. Raw gut sounds bright and beautiful up until its last day (when eventually a strand somewhere breaks and they go false). Tuning stability is fantastic. The only thing that will really mess with tuning stability is huge changes in humidity. Going between air conditioning and outside on a humid summer day will require significant retuning. Otherwise they’re great.

I play Irish fiddle for the most part.

Very well packaged and delivery was very good. As these are backup strings to a 'dominant' set I look forward to trying these when I can. The e string seems especially to be the one I wanted too.