Mackenzie is a freshman in high school, she plays First violin on her high school orchestra and is also in chamber orchestra.  She was just chosen to all county orchestra here in Pinellas county (Tampa bay).  There were only two violinists chosen from her orchestra.  Part of her success I attribute to the fact that she also plays nice violins.  The other day I picked up another violin.  The label inside says “Nicola Amati Cremona, sub Titula Santa Teresa”.  It really looks nice as you can see by the pictures.  and I left the existing strings on it and Mack tuned it up.  Mack and I usually use either Prelude or Dominate strings on our violins.  .  When she played it she immediately said how well it sounds.   Her comment was one I have never heard from her before.  She said, “ I feel like it is talking to me when I play it”.  I looked up the strings and they are Thomastik Infeld Vision.  Now I’m wondering if I need to experiment on different strings on her Gliga Vasile...???
String choice has been a real concern for me. Preludes are affordable but may not be a real good choice.