Review: Pirastro Gold Violin Rosin

Welcome! Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you'll find this place interesting and informative and I'll try really hard not to bore anyone to death.

This post is a short review about the Pirastro Gold Rosin, which I have been using for about three years now and I'm currently on my second cake. 

First, a little bit about the Pirastro company name (yay history): according to their website they got their name from two of the business partners Gustav Pirazzi and Theodor Strobel who lived sometime around the 1890s. They came by the name of mashing up their last names and BAM "Pirastro" was born. 

As for the company itself, they manufacture many different lines of strings, from gut strings to synthetic to steel strings. I've only used their Evah Pirazzis and their Gold Label E String (packaged with the standard GDA Thomastik Dominant set, links to amazon.com aka the amazing webstore dot com). I'll probably write a review and some thoughts about those two sets sometime in the future.


 Men and Gentleladies, may I present to you: the boxed Pirastro in all of its boxed glory:

The rosin out of its natural habitat:

Actually the cake is supposed to be a lot taller...I forgot to mention these shots are of my rosin that are over four months old, which also explains the wear around the sides.

What I really like about this particular rosin is the way it grips the string without letting my bow feel too "stuck" as I bow along. I also find it easier to do some fancyshmancy passages when I have a fully haired bow and this rosin smothered all over it. It's quite different than the Liebenzeller Gold cake (I don't use it as much, but I'll probably cover along the way sometime in the future) and it seems to help my violin project more. In addition, the Pirastro Gold rosin stays on my bow for a long time...and by that I mean sometimes I can go for 8-20 playing hours without applying more rosin. Which is a good thing, because if I forget to rosin my bow sometimes it's still playable.
There are some cons (depending on your sound preference): the rosin can cause my bow to give a more scratchy/grating sound, and it also leaves a lot of dust behind. The flecks are fine (like powder) and can really create an ugly white blanket under the strings (as opposed to the Liebenzeller). Also! It turns the bow hairs yellow tint (surprise, now you know what the "gold" stands for).

In the end, it's a good purchase for $10-15. One cake lasted me a good two years with normal use and as I mentioned before, I'm already on my second cake. 

Links:
Amazon
Shar Music