E loop strings safety (reliability).

We started to deal with E loop strings breakages recently intensively, since we have been referred the problem by a few customers. In fact, I have heard and read about the problem many times, even before we started our string production, although I have never faced the problem by myself.

We discovered that the safety level varies a lot with particular customers and their set-up. Whilst some of violinists use E loop for years, others refer E loop string breakage even during tuning procedure.

We have solved the mystery after asking the customers sending us not only broken E strings but also their fine tuners. There are several quality levels of fine tuners. The higher quality use to be German and we found out that the high German quality causes the problem paradoxically. The hook of the fine tuner use to be cut from sheet metal. Although the edges of the hook are rounded, it is made of hard steel and the string is bent quite sharply two times.

The string always break in one of these bendings.

There are cheaper Chinese fine tuners available. They are less quality obviously, there are sharp edges on the hook, the nut use to be out of line, the pin use to fall out, however their lower quality helps to protect the E string. The hook is made of soft iron. The wire cuts into the hook in more or less round shape.

This is why even the sharp edges do not mind. Although the two bendings are still visible, there is significantly less risk of breakage.

To be correct, I need to say that there is a producer in Germany, that has solved the problem in an ultimate way. Wittner makes plastic protectors for their loop end fine tuners. The loop stays round and practically never breaks.

The only problem is, that violin shops don’t use to stock such “triviality” as plastic protector mostly. Just very few players use it and even many salesmen never heard of it. This is why we decided to stock Wittner fine tuners with protectors on Warchalshop. Fine tuners without protectors are not available. Extra protectors are available, since the protector needs to be replaced with every string change. There are 8 pcs of protector in one item. This set-up is the only one we can guarantee 100% flawless function of loop E strings.