Pirastro Gold Label 4/4 Violin E String - Medium - Steel - Loop End

I am in LOVE!!!! I’ve been playing the violin for over a decade and my go-to e string has always been Optima’s Goldbrokat Premiums, but after some recommendation, I tried out Pirastro’s Gold, and yeah, I’m never going back. I was so astounded by the vibrant tone upon the first note I practically jumped out of my skin, but now I literally can’t stop playing. What a beautiful, broad and powerful sound!!! It rings incredibly nicely, keeping its power and clarity even in the highest positions, while still retaining a rich, colorful sound. But, what I am especially loving is how sweet it sounds when playing softer. Many e strings can play big and broad fine, but suddenly become dull and hoarse when trying to play anything less than forte. Pirastro Gold on the other hand practically transforms its color upon a softer dynamic, switching into this tender, gorgeously warm sound sweeter than sugar. Gah, I could gush about this string all day (maybe it’s still the honeymoon phase as I’ve only had it for a week 🤭), but I just know for certain this will be my go-to string for the foreseeable future! (in hopes it has decent durability!)

Pirastro's Gold Label is probably Pirastro's most popular gut string and with good reason! The sound is very bright and crisp, with even tones all around. Other Pirastro labels like the Eudoxa or Oliv are warmer or darker in tone and give a more specific type of sound that will bring out the different tonal registers, depending on which label you buy. But the gold label is the all-around baseline, beautiful-sounding strings that make your violin sound even livelier and richer than you've been used to if you've never tried these before and have been used to Dominant strings. They are more expensive, but worth every penny. If you're serious about performance, these strings are definitely the way to go. Understandable in just practicing for hours, you could use Dominant strings, but for performance, I would highly recommend either the Gold label or try another Pirastro label.

I have never used Pirastro GOLD E strings before but I must say I am impressed! I put it on my Ivan Bizov violin and just wow! I was using Westminster heavy 27.5 and it too is a really good E string. But this Pirastro is louder and produces more tone. I will have to see just how long it lasts.

Prompt delivery and a consistent product. Good results for a moderate price.

Excellent sound from these violin strings.

I see a lot of better violinists using this E string, often substituting it for the E that comes in the Dominant set or other string sets. I'm not sure why, exactly, after all steel wire is steel wire, right? Well, I needed an E string so I figured I'd try this one. Actually, it's a pretty nice E string at that. It tunes up quickly, holds its pitch, sounds powerful but sweet, not shrill on my Holstein Bench Strad copy. I'd likely use it again.

With a faculty recital in November 2020 on my list of performances, I changed out my old Thomastik Dominant violin strings for 3 new Thomastik strings and used this string for the E string because I needed an E with a loop end. All of my strings sounded fabulous; my violin sounded even more expensive and the strings sang with a great presence and depth. I performed Beethoven Romanze in F major, and I am extremely pleased with the recording, despite the microphone settings being muddy. The strings gave me enough volume to sound very present with an organ accompanist playing with EXTREMELY loud dynamics. This is a string I would definitely recommend and would buy for my violin again. I play professionally at least once per week and my strings can make or break my reputation, so having confidence in a particular make and brand of string brings me great comfort!

This is the second time I buy this particular e string where in between I had a Hill, Varchal, Goldbrokat (not bad at all for the price) and a couple of others. Other than Hill most tended to deteriorate in sound quality after a couple of months and a few even snapped unexpectedly. The Pis sounds longer than most and has a relatively warm sound. The main challenge is that it whistles like crazy and you need to practise much harder to tame it. Overall, for the price you get a very decent e string. In my case, I tend to like a darker sound and this e string fits well.