Viola String Review

I am a viola student ... the owner of two Simeon 16.5 inch violas ... one to practice on at home and one for work on lunch breaks. The instruments are similar sounding, though one is a little livelier. (I'll elaborate on the instruments at the end).

I play at about level 1 (at the moment) so my comments apply to first position. But I've noodled on guitar on bass for many years, so I think I have a good ear for tone.

Relative to guitar or bass guitar strings ... I think the strings on classical instruments can make a much bigger difference in sound. And comparative information about viola strings is particularly hard to find. So, here are my impressions of various strings.

My current preferred set up, after some experimentation is, after changing violas to Wittner fine-tuning tailpieces, is Spirocore tungsten C, Spirocore G, Spirocore D and Kaplan A.

Viola String Impressions

Dominant Viola Strings: ($80ish) A clear, direct without being plain, great reference sound. Moderate price and stable when settled in. Viola A came with Dominants so I can say how long it took to settle in. I switched them after many years because they'd finally deteriorated some.

Zyex Viola Strings: ($50ish) They settle in quickly. High tension and hard ... but warm. Also lively. I had both violas set up properly, keeping traditional tailpieces, with good bridges and reworked fingerboards (from JR Judd in Williamsport) and the Zyex went from sounding lively to just sounding harsh and unrefined.

So I switched to:

Obligato Viola Strings:  With traditional tailpieces. Great. Warm and clear without being harsh. Spendy at $110ish a set. The D string, in particular, had no element of a nasal sound that you can find traces of in violas. I liked the A string as well. Blended well without being strident and harsh.

Then the C peg got sticky so in frustration and impatience (tuning and retuning the C in sticky spring weather took away from practice time), I changed to Wittner fine tuning tailpieces. The soundposts fell, so I had it reset by a luthier in Syracause because we were traveling through.

With the fine tuning tailpieces, the Obligatos went from hero to zero ,.. really awful. It sounded like the guts had been taken from the sound of the instruments and something really unpleasant had been emphasized.

Viola B got:

Spirocore Viola Strings with a Kaplan A. The Spirocores, at $80ish, are a thick string, and the tension highish. But the thickness feels good under the fingers. The response seems a tad slower than the Obligatos. But there's depth and power and just a little edge to give it presence. I really like this combination. If I were to be super critical, I'd say the D string has a slight reedy quality.

Viola A initially got:

Correli New Crystal Viola Strings, which despite the name, were supposed to be a warm string. They are a relatively inexpensive $50ish, set and they are warm. But nothing really exceptional. And after about a week, still losing a semitone of pitch every day. I decided to go with metal core on that one too.

So Viola A next got:

Jargar Viola Strings with a Kaplan A. The Jargar A is a very bright string and often used in mixed sets. At my level now, I prefer my A to be darker and blend in with the other strings.  The rest of the Jargar set, also relatively inexpensive at $50ish, is very warm and very smooth. Perhaps a little muted as well ... particularly compared to the Spirocores. I'll give this combination more time and update this entry. One area where the Jargar may be better than the Spirocore would be the D string, which is very smooth without any nasal quality. But my feeling now is the Spirocores are better.

For a really shrill viola with poor pegs, a Wittner tailpiece and Jargars on the lower strings would probably help the sound (overall convenience of tuning) a lot.

Helicores. I've used Helicore Viola Strings on other violas, but neither Simeon. Inexpensive at $50ish. They are very neutral, clear and bright, tune and settle in very quickly ... like other metal core strings. The tension is lower than Spirocores and they're thin. I recall them responding quickly and being easy to play. The thicker Spirocore strings take a bit more effort and time to get moving ... but there's a richness of sound that makes it worth it to me.

Information about the specific instruments.

Viola A is the one I originally purchased for about $500 about five years ago. From the start, it had a really nice sound. I was discouraged from playing for several years (too high an initial investment to get even OK I thought) and it sat unused. I restarted lessons because my daughter was interested in cello and my teacher Kelli Bertenshaw, really inspired me.

Viola B I purchased for about $450 about a year ago. It formerly belonged to a high school orchestra student in Florida. Has a fair amount of dings (real-life antiquing), but a livelier sound. FWIW, the soundpost is about a post's width farther back than Viola A, which is tighter sounding. I play Viola B more.

Both came with Dominants (Viola B's were literally falling apart). On the first Viola, the Dominants sounded very good with a standard tailpiece and one fine tuner.

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Update (spring 2018)

Both violas got their soundposts adjusted by JR Judd in Williamsport Pa. That improved both. I played A mostly with Spirocore strings and a Jagar A. And they were good. The violas natural tendency is to be punchy and forward. When it came time to change strings. I put Helicores on viola. The settled in almost immediately. Tuning is super stable. The strings are very clear, very soft, low tension and neutral. Neither bright nor dull. Mr. Judd prefers these on violas and I can hear why. Super economical at less than $50 a set and American made. And they suit violas in particular.

Reading about Buddhism and a prayer came to mind

I've been reading a lot about Buddhism lately and a prayer came to mind (though I don't know if I could call myself a Buddhist, at least just yet.)

I've put off writing it down because I'm not really sure that the prayer is entirely Buddhist in it's conception. But, I think the idea has some merits, so I want to write it done before I forget. I've also been fascinated by Guanyin, and the tales about her inspired the first half of this:

May the tears of Guanyin flow into my eyes, so I can see

Flow into my mind, so I can understand

Flow into my heart, so I am not afraid

Flow into my hands, so I can do

Let there be no wound, not mended

No one hungry, not fed 

No kiss, not kissed

Let there be no thing, left undone

Still rough. The second half could be changed/adapted to suit different moods and needs.

A really nice history of typography

Tis the season for ... best and worst lists

Tis the season to be bombarded with lists of best and worst of this and that.

Here's an addendum to those lists ...

The film on many worst lists that simply doesn't belong ...

and the film that ought to be very high on the stinker list that gets overlooked.

John Carter ... on any number of worst lists ... bombed at the box office. Cutting of Mars from the title couldn't have helped. Which is too bad. Because it wasn't a bad movie at all. In fact, it was pretty good ... not a masterpiece ... but pretty good. The goodness is all due to old-fashioned charisma.

Taylor Kitsch is fine in the lead role. Lynn Collins is better than fine as Martian princess Dejah Thoris ... who is by turns tomboy, scientist and only occasionally distressed. I buy their romance. Supporting performances by various Martians are also spot on.

The biggest bummer of this film: It's set up nicely for a sequel. It could really use a sequel. And this one time, we won't get it.

You'd think with budgets in the tens (or hundreds) of millions, you'd get actors and scripts that click.

Alas, even when budgets are flush, the charisma fund can be sorely lacking.

Witness Snow White and the Huntsman. Twi-fans ensured that the film did okay box office. I was looking forward to seeing it. The Twilight films are a guilty pleasure after all.

But there's a rotten core in this apple. Kristen Stewart simply can't act ... at least not much.

Scene after scene goes by, characters around her talk, emote, do stuff. And you wait for the heroine to have something to say. To no avail. Toward the end, she gives a Henry V inspired speech, but it half misfires and comes off as more shrill than inspiring. And chemistry, well there is none. Huntsman Chris Helmsworth tries mightily, but it's as if he's chopping wood with a butter knife. Even he can't spark any passion in this soggy mess.

And the scenes ... visually interesting individually ... but the film has no idea what it want's to be. There's a particularly ridiculous and incongruous scene where a white stag bows to Snow in an enchanted part of the forest. An epic like Lord of the Rings, a bit of whimsy like Princess Bride, a dark cynical work like Brothers Grimm? Brother's Grimm covers much of the same ground ... and covers it much better.  Plus it has Monica Bellucci, what else needs to be said.

Bonus comment: This year's Mirror Mirror took a different take on the Snow White story ... it's as light as cotton candy and very stagey ... but for watching with kids strikes a tone very much like Princess Bride. That one works.

Movie critic Peter Travers at Rolling Stone generally agrees with my take on John Carter, but we're opposite on the Snow films.

Quick Tips

This is all subjective of course:

Strap locks on guitars: Sorta specialized comment here. Straplocks are aftermarket buttons you use to replace the buttons already on your guitar. They cost like $20 and they are plain stupid. Some strap buttons are fine to start with. A few ... Fender style buttons in particular ... in prone to letting the strap slip off. Instead of buying a $20 strap lock for your guitar, just do this:

Pick up two ten cent plastic washers, sized just smaller than the outside of the strap button, but bigger than the inside ...
Take off your strap button and put the washer on it, then the strap, then reattach the button to the guitar.
Voila. The strap will not come off.

The downside: The strap is on there somewhat permanently. 

So what. Buy a strap for each guitar. They are hardly more expensive ($30ish) than the strap locks ($20ish). And a lot cheaper than a guitar.

Wine: Skip the inexpensive pinot noir. It's never really very good (relearned the lesson tonight yet again at dinner). Don't get me wrong. I like pinot noir. But in the $12 to $15 a bottle range it just doesn't cut it. Spanish reds in that price range however, can be very fine. 

A side kick against cinema mediocrity

Cue movie preview announcer man ...

In a world in which movie theaters have been invaded by remakes, reboots, sequels ... one man stands up for originality ... for movies with vision. That man is Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Yeah. I said Jean-Claud Van Damme. And yep, I'm being deliberately hyperbolic. But he deserves some respect for this: JCVD. It's not a new film, dating to 2008. My wife stumbled across references to the film while reviewing a peculiar Belgian novel that liberally quoted the film and Van Damme.

Van Damme plays himself. And in playing himself, ironically becomes a pretty good actor. The plot in a nutshell, Van Damme, in the midst of a child custody battle, returns to Brussels and goes to the post office to get some money. The office is being robbed. And then it's completely unlike any Van Damme film you've seen. Hint: Don't hold your breath for the side kick.

Perfect film. No. Interesting film. Hell yes.

I don't bother heading to the movies much anymore, because I'm tired of remakes, reboots and sequels. (Though I will watch the last Twilight film with my wife because the novelist has such as awful style that the movies are actually much better.)

Big Thinkers

I design print publications for Bloomsburg University. A lot of stuff crosses my desk and email. Things designed in MS Word, in Publisher, with lousy clipart, with ugly fonts, with type that glows, has been twisted or just plain looks silly.

I walked into work last week and this was taped to the door in all of it's black and white glory. I stopped dead in my tracks and read it, right then, right there.

It got my attention. I got the message. I loved the snarky edge.

Sometimes, all you need is simple black and white, simple words, and a little attitude to make something really cool.