Thomastik-Infeld Rondo Gold Experience

[NicholasP]

Important note: I will be updating this thread over the next coming days and weeks to try and show as much of the strings that I can and to see if it's just the honeymoon phase and how long lasting the strings are.

I recently bought a set of Rondo Gold strings that were recommended to me by my teacher who's in Vienna. She recommended both the Dynamo and Rondo Gold sets as she had good experiences with them, but I aimed for the more cost effective Rondo Gold which came in at $110.95 (May have been a pricing issue by the shop, but that's what they quoted).

The violin I chose to put these strings are is a violin that's around 100 years old from Germany. With the Helicore strings it had on before the projection was very good and it had a rich sounding tone, although I wasn't a huge fan of the Helicore strings as they didn't fit what I wanted from the violin's sound and I wanted a nice little upgrade since I've never done a set of strings over $75. We kept all 4 fine tuners on as the tailpiece had slight damage to where they would go. We also changed out the plastic tubes on the A and E for a parchment piece for the E string.

We tried it out in the shop and I could hear a nice difference. But waited until we got home to hear the difference fully. We tried it out in the living room with several pieces. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5, Brahms Violin Concerto, Bach Partita No. 2, Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, Vivaldi Summer, Paganini Caprice 24, and Vivaldi Violin Concerto A Minor.

The major differences I noticed are, the colors of these springs explodes, and it somehow gets better the higher you go on the strings. The projection and control now is insane, it can output so much volume when I need it to, and soften up to a nice Pianissimo where needed and without losing quality of it's sound. Before it already projected pretty good, now it's just a beast waiting to be awakened. It also has so much color to them which is exactly what I wanted. The strings also have a very nice grip to them. Other notable differences is I don't notice any whistle on the E string since I hear that some gold strings has that issue. But this one doesn't seem to have that as an issue at all although it could just be that my violin accepted these strings very well as all violins are different and will react differently to different variables and items. And the chords for Bach Partita No. 2 comes out very nicely on these strings.

I have nothing but praise for these strings. They're affordable and come with two E strings, one being gold plated, the other is tin plated. I will add some recordings as I get them done and I will update this thread over the coming days and weeks, especially after my solo performance is done where it'll matter most.

[GoPractice]

Almost six weeks in, what do you think?

Pricing, though I do not complain to retailers is still high. I was surprised by how many Thomastik string swaps on upper string instruments I completed on player instruments prior to the end of this academic year ( April - May. ) Will not go into specifics at the moment, but without telling the performers much about what was being swapped, they chose what they liked with a few suggestions from listeners.

I sometimes work with kids where neither parents work and mostly households where both parents work. When asking to travel with an extra pack of strings, they nearly all question or complain about it. Not like Epi- pens, we were asked throw out every year. 

Workshop and coaching starts at the end of this week and will get to hear another batch of kids. Am curious to see what they are playing.

I am struggling a bit with blending ensembles now, at all ages.

Curious with what Maestro Slobodkin sees anything different at his shop.

[dpappas]

I did not like the Rondo Golds.  But I also don't like Rondos.  The Rondo Golds are a high-quality product, no doubts there, but I just didn't like the core of the sound--it was sterile to me.  

I prefer dynamos but they are completely different animal altogether.  I suspect people will like the Rondo Golds overall, they just didn't do the trick for me.

[NicholasP]

On 6/4/2024 at 5:23 PM, GoPractice said:

Almost six weeks in, what do you think?

Pricing, though I do not complain to retailers is still high. I was surprised by how many Thomastik string swaps on upper string instruments I completed on player instruments prior to the end of this academic year ( April - May. ) Will not go into specifics at the moment, but without telling the performers much about what was being swapped, they chose what they liked with a few suggestions from listeners.

I sometimes work with kids where neither parents work and mostly households where both parents work. When asking to travel with an extra pack of strings, they nearly all question or complain about it. Not like Epi- pens, we were asked throw out every year. 

Workshop and coaching starts at the end of this week and will get to hear another batch of kids. Am curious to see what they are playing.

I am struggling a bit with blending ensembles now, at all ages.

Curious with what Maestro Slobodkin sees anything different at his shop.

It's interesting. I really like the sound, it's a good match for my violin still. But there are some important things I should note.

My fingers are fairly calloused from the pieces of Bach, Brahms, and Vivaldi that I play. So within a few weeks (I think it was 3) the gold on the fingerboard part from the first up to the 3rd position had worn off (basically a full octave on the E). Though the gold in the bowing area was still perfectly fine in tact.

Also, on May 14th I went on vacation to a coastal city in Peru. It's practically 80% humidity hear daily, if not, more. So within a week, the part that didn't have gold on the E string had started to what I assume is rusting. I had to start attacking the rust the best I could because once it starts, it's hard to stop unless you make sure to control it. If rust didn't make shifts with the finger harder (because it would have patches of more friction on the string) I could live with it, but I can't since it's adding more friction. I just used a paper towel and rubbed it for a few minutes until the rust came off. I do this whenever I see the rust pop up which is basically every 5-7 days.

Besides that though, it still sounds nice, not as good on the E string since the rust started and areas of the gold wore off, but still nice. They also have insane amount of power and tenderness still.

When I get back to the states I will probably buy another set to replace these or some Peter Infelds. We'll see. I'll probably update in a few months or weeks.

[Anson]

On 6/7/2024 at 11:40 PM, dpappas said:

I did not like the Rondo Golds.  But I also don't like Rondos.  The Rondo Golds are a high-quality product, no doubts there, but I just didn't like the core of the sound--it was sterile to me.  

I prefer dynamos but they are completely different animal altogether.  I suspect people will like the Rondo Golds overall, they just didn't do the trick for me.

Can you please explain a bit more about why you prefer dynamos over rondo gold? I am currently using Rondos and I love their sweet and rich sound especially on the g string and overall projection, but I think I would prefer a slightly warmer and fuller sounding version of it so maybe rondo gold is the answer to that. But in the mean time I’ve heard so many great things about Dynamo. So I am really considering purchasing one of these two strings and I am interested to hear your opinion since you seem to have tried both.

[dpappas]

On 6/12/2024 at 3:08 AM, Anson said:

Can you please explain a bit more about why you prefer dynamos over rondo gold? I am currently using Rondos and I love their sweet and rich sound especially on the g string and overall projection, but I think I would prefer a slightly warmer and fuller sounding version of it so maybe rondo gold is the answer to that. But in the mean time I’ve heard so many great things about Dynamo. So I am really considering purchasing one of these two strings and I am interested to hear your opinion since you seem to have tried both.

Sorry for the delay!  Rondos, PIs, and Rondo Golds are to me very "pure" sounding strings.  The Dynamos are very textured, you get a lot of grit to the sound, which I like.  For the Rondo Gold, and Rondo, I hear this midrange "honk" that I find unpleasant under the ear.  The Rondo Gold are definitely better in that regard than regular Rondo.  For pure, powerful strings you can't be PI.  For textured, powerful strings, there's a reason Dynamo strings are getting so much attention these days.