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Product Description
| Table of Tricolore Violin Gauges | ||||||
| Light | Medium | Heavy | ||||
| a-2 | .76mm | .78mm | .80mm | |||
This is a single length (22") sheep gut treble string knotted at one end with a leather washer.
Sheep gut strings are available with a natural or varnish finish. Natural strings are hand-rubbed with a light oil. Varnished strings have three coats of finish before being hand polished with the oil. There is an additional charge for varnished strings.
The Tricolore brand, used by many famous violin soloists, was one of the most well known violin strings made in the 20th century. Now, after many decades of being unavailable, we are pleased to offer these strings again. This string was developed by Ray Neiner at the Perfection Musical String Co. Brunswick, IN, just south of Chicago. The machines we use at Gamut Music to make the strings were purchased from the Perfection company, and in addition to the machines, we also received the formulations that Perfection used to make their strings, including the Tricolore brand. We have in our archives a copy of the Perfection workshop book that specifies the gauge of gut used for the cores, the size of the wires, length of the strings, and colors of the thread used for the stockings at the top and bottom of the strings. In addition to this practical information, we also received instruction for the special curing treatment that the gut cores went through before being wound and the specific techniques used in winding the wire onto the gut core. These strings are accurate replications of the ones that filled American concert halls with sound in the 20th century.
Notably, the Tricolore strings used by violinist virtuosos and many players interested in reproducing this historical tone consisted of:
- e-1 - Goldbrokat - 0.26mm (Medium) gauge
- a-2 - Treble Gut - 0.78mm (Medium) gauge
- D-3 - Lyon Gut - 1.06mm (Medium) gauge
- G-4 - Gut/Sterling Silver - 0.80mm (Medium) gauge
One addition we have made to the original string design is the inclusion of a leather washer at the knot of each string. Modern tailpieces are made with wider string slots than those of the early 20th century and the gut knot is no longer big enough to hold the string in place. The leather keeps the string from pulling through the tailpiece.
Tricolore strings are manufactured in the USA by Gamut Music, a leader in the revival of early music strings and instruments. Gut strings are not intended to be used with fine tuners or string adjusters and those devices should be removed before installing the gut string on the instrument.
Product Videos
Custom Field
Product Reviews
18 Reviews Hide Reviews Show Reviews
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Best
I've been using Tricolores since Gamut started production at least 10 years ago. I will continue to use them for as long as they are produced, they are the best.
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Best A string
Best a string on the market, very projecting and bright but not to harsh, fits my instrument very well and with the wound D and G it makes the instrument into a gradient of deep to bright from G to E. I got rid of one star because they seem to fray easily and the top get flattened by the bow even with good rosin made for gut (Gustave Bernadel)
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TRICOLOR VIOLIN plain gut a string
This is my absolute favorite a string. It is stable, bright and powerful. It is far more stable than any wound string, got or synthetic. If you love gut strings but you get frustrated with the a string going flat, give this one a try. Also try the full TRICOLOR set.
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Warm, easy to play
After playing on Vision Titaniums for awhile I've gone back to Gamut Tricolores. Used my old wound G and D but needed a new A, and I can't believe how easy it is to get it to speak. And it makes my not-great old fiddle sound its very best.
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Great string. Great sound and long last
One of the best g guy string
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I didn't know what personal tone was until this string
I studied Baroque violin in college and always used Academie strings, but post-college I'm back playing in modern orchestras. I've been using synthetics (of course, it's what I was raised on) but I was never satisfied with my tone, color palette, and bow response of synthetics. I changed the A string to this bare gut A (heavy gauge) and even my partner's eyes widened. I'm not sure what the commotion around gut string's supposed lack of stability, but this string honestly settled more quickly than most synthetic A strings I've used (Obligato, Dominant, Evah Pirazzi, Evah Pirazzi Gold, Tonica, Zyex, Larsen Il Cannone, and PI all didn't settle or respond as quickly). I think the conversation should rather be based around the quality of gut, and evidently the highest quality of gut string as produced by Dan Larson is better than these gut strings that won't stay in tune - that's a reflection of poor manufacturing rather than an innate downside of gut in my opinion. Furthermore, suggestions of "sluggish bow response" I find false. I personally feel that gut strings are by far the most sensitive, the issue is rather that of less refined bow technique, but once you negotiate the string's response you'll find anything else feels stiff, one-dimensional, and that a technique is just a technique, not expression. In conclusion, I don't know if I could bear using any other strings. I'm messing around with the whole set to figure out the combination of gauge and winding (or lack thereof) and will be happy to review once I've found my setup with comments about different combinations and how they responded on my instrument.
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Very nice sound
good quality
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tricolor violin A-2 gut
wonderful strings so glad they keep on making them
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Nice responsive a-string!
This is my first experience with a plain gut string and I’m enjoying it. At first I was put off by the slightly scratchy sound but as it played in it sounds clear, full and responsive. There is still a very slight “swishing” sound every time I play a note on this string but I actually enjoy it. I bought this in conjunction with the Tricolore e, heavy wound gut d and heavy wound gut g. I like it enough that I’ll likely try the heavy plain gut d next.
