Strings Do Matter !

A week ago I visited Cauer's violin shop to check they had anything in stock that would beat dear Ficker (name of my violin). They have new instruments coming in regularly.

Turns out violins that were double the price of Ficker couldn't match the quality of its sound.
As for every other aspect, Ficker failed.
To me it seemed that my violin had the charm and sweetness in its sound, but it was too meek and humble.

In other words, my ideal violin must have a stentorian voice- LOUD, with deep richness.

So anyways, the violins I tried weren't WINSAUCE.
Some were win, but w/o the sauce, so I figured I'll come back in a couple months and see if Cauer's has anything better.

Before I walked out, I wanted to try some brighter strings. I was using Obligato by Pirastro then, which has a darker, warm tone.

After an hour of stringing and unstringing and testing with the help of Mr. Cauer, I settled on Vision Solo (Pirastro) and Vision Heavy on the G&D strings, respectively, and kept the A&E. According to Cauer, strings should tend to be brighter on the G string, a bit less bright on the D string, even less brighter on A, & so on- which makes sense because you don't want a sharp shrieking E string; higher strings like to stick out more anyways.

Also, always buy strings online (sharmusic.com). It's a good profit for music stores if you buy it from them. 3 strings cost like $50 for me, but I would've felt bad not buying anything after Robert Cauer helped me for so long.

Anyways, when I played my re-stringed violin, it turns out they gave Ficker a different personality.
Instead of a flat MEH on the G, the brighter string gave it a more open sound- like a choir of angels singing "Ahhhhh!"

Sooo as of now I think I am satisfied with Ficker, and won't be violin hunting around for a bit.
Unless something extraordinary comes along, of course.