I’ve been looking for the right strings for Henri since, well, forever. As soon as the set he came with started to go weird and sound old, I replaced them with an identical set up: 2 Larsens, 2 Spirocores.

It was…not great. Especially for how much those bad boys cost. The growl was gone from the C string. The A sounded sibilant, the D, oblique, the wolf tones up and down the G, extra spicy. Since then, I’ve tried so many sets; as many as my budget would allow. Versum, Pirastro Perpetual, two different kinds of Larsen Il Cannone, Obligatos, maybe some others. The total is somewhere near $2000 thus far, an astonishing amount for a sound that is still not to my satisfaction.

I was lamenting this with my local luthier, Philip Perret, who was at a loss for recommendations but mentioned that some of his NYC clients were using Warchals. I looked for reviews, finding mostly positive ratings, many of them mentioning a long break-in time. They were sold out forEVER (something I took as a good sign), but I found a place not too far from here that could get them in, so at long last, here’s my review over the course of a week. FYI, I opted for the “Prototype A” string, which was a pleasant surprise. If I ever test out the A the set came with, I’ll put that up, too.

nb: If you watch this on YouTube directly, you can grab the time stamps where I do the comparative playing. There’s some of my usual waffling, but also useful information mixed in there.

In the end, these aren’t the right strings for me, but I can definitely see how they could be excellent for instruments with different issues, especially those lacking resonance or focus to the sound. Also, they retail for under $200, and the Prototype A is under $40. I haven’t seen prices like that for viable professional strings since the 1990s. So this is not a take down or discouragement from purchasing them. They are well made and hold pitch and offer great projection. They just aren’t what I’m looking for. We are getting close to Princess and the Pea territory, I fear.

to be clear, Henri is the princess 😂

Questions? Requests? Drop ’em in the comments!