Guqin"ICE" Strings

I’m obsessed these strings. It was incredibly cumbersome learning to string my qin for the first time but these strings made the difficulty worth it.The sound has a beautiful, warm tone that resonates much longer, and is more sensitive to nuance than the strings that came with my budget qin. I used to have a very hard time playing in tune because my old strings didn’t have good sensitivity or even tone. But with these I can discern the smallest differences in notes and vibrato.Oh my god and fan yin is to die for. Crisp and rings like crystal. An yin is buoyant, and san yin is grounded.They hold their tune well once they get settled. However, they do stretch a lot initially, and I had to retension the strings several times until I was satisfied with their position on the bridge.After a couple weeks I did decided to lower each string to be one note lower than standard (B,C#,E,F#,G,b,c#) because they were just too high for comfort when tightening for tunings such as Bb. The strings seem to enjoy this lowered relative position much more and it makes tightening them for different tunings less worrisome.I’ve never stringed metal nylon or silk so I don’t know how it compares in the tensioning regard, but I imagine the stretching happens all across the board.It fixes my qin’s original tinny sound on high notes. They now have a “sweeter” sound that isn’t harsh on the ears. On the 4th hui and higher for strings 6&7, I still have some difficulty and the sound is a bit sharper, but I have no doubt that that’s due to the string height on my instrument itself. It’s still greatly improved compared to my last strings.Anyway, they live up to their name. They glide so incredibly smooth like skating on a freshly zamboni-ed ice rink, and are easy to press down on. Previously, I wasn’t able to play certain songs because the original strings hindered the playability of some techniques and notes, such as pressing two strings with one finger. But I have zero problem now!After stringing I loved them so much that I learned a new song I wasn’t previously able to play due to my old strings. I had an absolute blast, these strings have led to some of the most fun I’ve had on any instrument in a while. I can’t wait to buy these again for when I upgrade to a new qin and see what it sounds like on one higher quality.I have no idea what playing on silk is like, I’ll have to try and compare sometime, but my verdict is you should absolutely give these a spin if you’re apprehensive about the upkeep of silk.All in all, I can’t find a single thing to dislike. The only not great thing is you have to restring your qin, which can be a pain. But again, worth it.