Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Viola medium

I'm a fan of Evah Pirazzis for my violin, so thought these would be a safe bet as the first set for my new viola. They give me a rich, powerful sound and I feel the sound is very controllable. However, I will be trying some other brands the next few times I replace strings.

These work much better than the Dominant strings that the shop installed, but strings are always a personal thing; what works for me might not be the best on every instrument or for every player.

They're quite expensive, but there are some things it's not worth compromising on. Having tried various cheaper sets a few times on my violin I don't have much confidence in the sound I get if I try to economise.

Firstly I'll start by saying that I've had plenty of these exact strings in the past and in general I've been happy.

However this set seemed to be faulty. First string broke within seconds and another shed it's outer winding after about an hours playing.

I'm experienced in maintaining stringed instruments and have been doing so for 25 years or so. So I don't believe I made any silly mistakes or overtightenend them.

Considering this is a premium set of strings and the relative cost is much higher than other brands, I'm annoyed.