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Karneol (Warchal)

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Displayed for educational use only, please do not reuse.
Synthetic Core

Tension in lbs:
E - 18
A - 12.3
D - 9.7 
G- 9.7 

What the manufacturer says:
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  • The KARNEOL string set produces well-balanced velvety tones, giving warmth and texture to your sound. They have a synthetic core, and normally require three days to achieve tuning stability and optimum tone quality.

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Average
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neutral/Warm (Tone)
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Neutral/Complex (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall

Reviews
C. Colding (5/2/16)
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Warm (Tone)
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Neutral (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall
Warmer than most synthetic strings, a pleasure to play.
H. Thomas (4/5/15)
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Warm (Tone)
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Rich (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall
I love these strings. I moved from Dominants to Karneols and really enjoy them compared to the dominants, which I didn't like at all.
The strings broke in at about 3-4 days and I have been impressed with their sound since then.
The G and D strings have a beautiful rich sound that makes it a pleasure to play.  
The A I don't feel confident I can review on its own - I think is always a problem with the A on this particular violin - sounded terrible on the Dominants. However, it is not really noticeable, and the Karneols certainly improved over the Dominant A.
The E is quite good. Less volume than the Goldbrokat or Helicore I have experience with, but it matches the rest of the strings in that regard.  

In short, lovely strings to play if you're happy with a more mellow sound. Have bought a few spare sets already. They can be found quite cheap on Ebay or on the Warchal site - cheaper than Dominants, anyway, and in my ears much better.

L. van der Heijden (7/19/14)
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Neutral (Tone)
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Neutral (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall
 was disappointed to unpack the Karneols and find these strings so thick and stiff. While the string tension in itself is rather low, playability is affected by stiffness and thickness and it is not optimal for me because I am used to Violino and Larsen strings that feel much softer. So I gave the strings a try anyway, but I could not make friends with them. For some reason, my bow kept sliding all ways but straight. Even though I use the Andrea rosin that Warchal recommends. I have not been able to enjoy the full velvet sound that supposedly unfolds after a few days of settling. I took them off prematurely.



D. Martins (12/7/13)
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Warm (Tone)
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Neutral (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall
The "E" string would be very good if did not whistle so much.  It is the most balanced set I've ever seen. There are strings like Obligato for example, that when you play a scale the A-string sound much warmer and the "E" sound explodes. The "E" is fine but unfortunately whistles. I look forward to testing the Amber. After 3 months of playing the  "D" is starting to deteriorate but there is still time.  The price is very low for me and I live in Brazil.  It is interesting that the price is a plus because others are 2x more expensive.  The Karneol Warchal string is Difficult to tune up to 3 days. From the third day, the sound of metallic timbre Became a better sound. The Sound is as velvety As the manufacturer says.

Edit: Only fix, these ropes were brilliant for me until I changed my Baroque easel for a Deluxe Albert. From there I can see that the sound is dark. Like L. van der Heijden said, I also used the rosin Andrea was like when played with other strings. In my case the rosin of Piratro fared better.



C. Shih (4/6/13)
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Warm (Tone)
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Rich (Complexity)
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Neutral (Projection)
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Overall
For the price, quite good. Brings out tone on my violin much better than the widely used Dominants. Definitely worth a try.
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  • Spotlight Reviews
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    • Synthetic
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    • Introduction
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