This is something that I keep putting off... restocking my supplies of naked and silver-wound gut strings for my violins, violas, and d'amores. It is sort of an expensive exercise when you have one instrument... but when you have multiple instruments AND multiple types, all requiring different gauges and types of strings. It rapidly adds up... and the longer that I put it off, the worse it gets... not to mention that gaps in the string inventory could lead to onstage disaster!

Anyway, for small orders, I will order from an Australian supplier... the unit prices are higher, but the shipping is lower. However, for these bulk orders, I have two options in Europe where I used to order my strings from. One is in the UK and the other is in Poland... and both are quite different in the types of string that they stock, and their unit pricing, AND their shipping costs...

The Polish site has a wider selection of strings that in the sizes and makes that I prefer... whilst the English site has a smaller selection that I can live with, but with cheaper unit prices and shipping.

So, I do have to mock up the order on both websites to get a rough idea of how much it will all cost on both websites... and this time, it was about 650 AUD on the Polish site, and about 500 AUD on the English one.

Seeing as we had a large run of car bills that hit us... I figured that I would just go with the cheaper route this time and test out some brands and styles that I don't usually use. I am still experimenting with the gauges on one violin, a violin that usually sits at higher pitches.

I should be good for about half a year now... depending on my luck with the quality of these strings and the weather/humidity wear and tear. Sigh... these are materials that need to be constantly stocked to be able to play my instruments... and it was much easier in Europe when there were more places to order easily from (plus the ability to do local postage instead of international).

But, if I want my instruments to be in tiptop condition for playing... this is what it takes! At least they are tax-deductible...

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ByBit: Leverage and spot trading, next Binance?
OkX: Again, another Binance contender?