How to Make Violin Strings

This image of a D'Addario violin string at 40 times magnification shows its layers of steel, copper and silver wire around a core.

Although some violinists and other string instrument players use natural gut strings, the vast majority of players today use synthetic strings. Synthetic strings require less care and maintenance than gut strings, have longer playing lives and can produce sound that carries farther and stays more in tune than gut strings. Today, strings are developed by acoustic engineers, chemists and other specialists in composite materials, and are made on custom-designed equipment protected as trade secret. This article tells you how most modern strings are made.

Instructions

1. Buy nylon filament, stainless steel wire or bronze wire from nylon and wire manufacturers to use as the core of the string. According to Fan-Chia Tao, acoustician for stringmaker D'Addario, strings are made in one of two ways, "either as a single filament, or as a string core around which windings are twisted in a manner that is supposed to preserve the string's flexibility and lower its pitch by adding mass." Violin e strings are the strings most often made as a single filament. The cores of most strings are made with a combed and combined nylon material called Perlon.

2. Stretch the core to the desired length and blend and wind with the desired other fibers. This is normally done using a special machine that coats it with metal strands. These metal strands can be almost any combination of steel, copper, tungsten, silver and even gold. By combining strands in different blends and physical configurations, stringmakers can create strings with different sounds.

3. Wrap the ends of each string in colored thread to help players identify them. A small metal ball is added at the ends of all strings except violin e strings. The balls are used to hook the strings into instruments' tailpieces or fine tuners; the violin e string ends with a tiny loop for the same purpose.

4. Test samples from each batch after strings are wound, coated and finished with the end balls, using scientific instruments that register the brightness (having more noticeable overtones) or mellowness of the strings. Package the new strings in acid-free paper for sale.

Resources

• "The Tao of Strings" by Michael Rogers