Thoughts about gut violin strings

My latest experiments on violin equipment and playing style

Wound gut strings: For the last half year, I've been using, almost exclusively, gut strings, both on my Guadagnini and modern Turkish violin made by Nurgül Çomak. For a start, I made the switch from synthetics (Evah Pirazzi and the like) to old-school Eudoxa wound gut for G-D-A made by Pirastro (I always kept the metal E). When it came to tonal perfection and having a bit more of a "human" feeling under my fingers (and yes, I get goosebumps at old-school recordings), these were the pinnacle for me. The issue with them, mainly with the D and A, was that aluminum windings don't last in my hands more than a few days.

Plain gut strings: Having tasted the "gutsy" feeling, I didn't want to go back to the synthetics for just the tuning stability. There had to be another way. So I decided to try the so-called "Heifetz-setup" gut strings: silver wound G, plain gut D-A. I got the thickest gauges I could find and found it was nice to dig in with the bow more while still having enough elasticity, and beauty of the sound without being too shrill.

Shoulder-rest free: I found the above setup to be more stable tuning-wise, but I couldn't play comfortably because these were too slippery for my sweaty hands. Luckily, I was also starting to experiment with playing without shoulder rest and I felt that the violin started to be like an extension of my body. Furthermore, the closer and more "intimate" contact with the instrument made a big difference for my deaf left ear. After a few weeks, I found that this slipperiness problem also disappeared, because my left hand was getting used to supporting the instrument and I can feel the increased automatisation in my playing.

Conclusion:

I think it's healthy to examine your playing and experiment with different tools from time to time (or the lack thereof). Though saying that I'll be forever playing with this setup from now on would be unrealistic, the "hunger" in me seems to be satisfied, for now. I will keep you all updated and we will see how my future recordings will turn out.