FORUM

Well first, Welcome to the family of fiddlers here. You're going to love it here as many have been down the same road you're on right now! We've all been there and had to fight with squeeks, squacks, and broken strings from improper tuning.

The first thing that comes to mind is where are you placing the bow hair to get that horrible sound? I'm long shot guessing but I bet it's close to the bridge.

Some A strings actually come with a tiny nylon sleeve that goes under the string and helps hold it up on the bridge so it doesn't dig into the wood, just like the E string.

Not that any of that is your issue but you will find that "play it like you stole it" is a good thing to keep in mind, as many of us beginners seem to pull the bow slowly and daintily across the strings when what it needs is some aggression. Don't be scared and put a bit of pressure on it and get the bow speed up. My violins all tend to do exactly what you described on various strings and it's always been due to not enough pressure or speed or both.

Hope this helps, maybe drop in a video of your playing and we can all get a better feel for the reason.

Personally I don't wipe my strings except about once a week or two, and my bow gets a very good cleaning once a month or two, using alcohol to strip all the rosin from the hair without harming it. If you have a wood bow or violin, don't get alcohol on the finish or it'll mess it up, think thinner on a painted surface. I use a few strokes of rosin before every practice session.

I doubt it's a bad string being as new as they are but it is a possibility, although I've never gotten a bad string in any I've bought. I suggest just go forward and do the best you can to get things rolling. It might resolve itself as the issue may be you and not it. The noise you hear may also be due to the soundpost being a little 'off' of perfect placement but that's something you wouldn't want to mess with unless you have the skills and tool to reset it.

Since your Luthier set it up and did a rehair job, make sure that bow has a good amount of rosin on it from the start. It takes about 20-30 strokes of that rosin to get enough initially on the hair to make it 'grab' properly. After the initial application it only takes a few strokes to keep it up to snuff.