I purchased this violin from a retired music teacher/musician.. I don't know how long he had used the strings that were on the violin. I used/played on them until I noticed the A string was starting to unravel. It got to the point where the A string would constantly make a weird scratching noise and it was driving me crazy.. Because of the fact that I had no idea how long the strings had been on the violin (especially since he hadn't played the violin in years himself...), I finally got around to ordering new strings after having the violin about a year and a half. 

I just put on the new strings and OMG... I seriously cannot believe the difference in sound!!!! (Actually, I should back up slightly. I did go to a local music store here in town and bought a really cheap set of strings just so I didn't have to play on the strings that were on it when I purchased the violin. I was so worried about the A string snapping and that weird scratching noise was driving me insane... Anyway, I used the really cheap set until I got around to buying my new strings...) So as I was saying, I cannot believe how much nicer and LOUDER my violin sounds. I am anxious to start playing it tomorrow! Once the strings stay in tune and I can break them in some, I would imagine that it's going to have such a sweet sound!!!  

I didn't buy extremely expensive strings. I feel like this is my beginning step up to really nice strings. Eventually I'd like to get a really good quality set. For now though, I love these and I've only just tuned it, so I haven't fully tested them yet. I bought Dominant A, D, G and Pirastro E string.. <a href="