FAKE TONICA VIOLIN STRINGS (TONICA) FROM CHINA

[shsu]

I bought 10 sets of Tonica strings on us Ebay. The sell is located in China. The strings are thinner and color codes (TP and pegs) do not match the Tonica color codes. The paper package looks exactly like the authentic German package but inside the strings are in plastic bag (not paper bag). Unless Pirastro recently changes the string codes and package, I think I got ripped off. I heard the fake Chinese Dominants before but Tonica??

Buyer be aware.

[MANFIO]

Chinese fake strings... ... that's a horrible thing indeed. I imagine the prices were suspicious, am I wrong?

[shsu]

I used to pay about $20 free shipping buying from a seller in Ohio. Pirastro raised the price early this year. The fake one is about $16 which I think might be old inventory on clearance sale. I was wrong..

Here is the strings photo I got.

[bean_fidhleir]

Thanks for the warning!

After you check to be sure Pirastro hasn't altered their product, I hope you decide to complain to ebay, to your credit-card company, and to Pirastro. Those counterfeiters shouldn't succeed with that.

I try to buy nothing that comes from China anymore - they've embraced capitalism's "privatise the profit, socialise the costs" idea to the point where nothing they offer is worth the worry that comes with it.

[priya]

I bought 6 sets of perlon core violin strings from China, they were pretty bad, the price was very attractive

but tonal quality was so poor that could not use them. Alas, they sit at the bottom of my string box never to be used. Not much of a bargain. It would be very frustating if the reach string market.

[Bohdan Warchal]

I used to pay about $20 free shipping buying from a seller in Ohio. Pirastro raised the price early this year. The fake one is about $16 which I think might be old inventory on clearance sale. I was wrong..

Here is the strings photo I got.

It is not difficult to recognize the strings are not synthetic core strings at all. There is just a thin steel wire around the ball (G string). It is the cheapest string construction although the second winding seems to be silver. I have already seen some of such fake strings (various brands) - the construction was always the same. I guess there is cooper winding under the silver.

[nawaf amjad]

My new strings have arrived today, it is pirastro chromcore, all was okay 'til i asked my friend which has a violin workshop abt this strings. He said that they're all fake. I am very upset. I think i knew it was fake since its tension, the strings are so thight, the price, just around $7, crazy? it is. 

[Wood Butcher]

If it seems too good a price, often there is a reason for it, as you have found.

Perhaps next time you can get some from your friend, and be sure they are the real thing.

[chrissweden]

File a paypal dispute not ebay and you'll have your money back in no-time. I bought fake Dominants from China, the fakes were convincing but when I realized the G string broke first time I became suspicious and compared them with the original and saw slight colour differences between them and also the packaging is slightly different, especially the fontsize/text and colour not being perfect white.