Dogal Strings

Dogal Strings, founded in Venice in 1950, is one of the oldest hand-making string workshops still in continuous operation. Every set that leaves their workshops in Marghera is wound by hand, inspected by hand, and held to tolerances tighter than most factory production lines will ever attempt. Bass, classical guitar, electric, violin, cello, mandolin, lute — if it has strings, Dogal has probably made a set for it.

Born in the City of the Doges

The name comes from the Doges — the elected leaders of the old Venetian Republic — and the workshop has been making strings in the Venice lagoon since just after the war. The original founder, Maestro Cella Luigi, was already working out his own steel formulas for violin and cello strings in the 1950s, and that bowed-instrument heritage still shapes everything Dogal does. The processes, the materials, the obsession with tolerance: it all traces back to the classical world.

Hand-Wound, Not Marketed As Hand-Wound

A lot of brands use the word “handmade.” With Dogal it’s literal — each string is wound, finished and measured by a person, with diameter tolerances held within 1/100 of a millimetre over the full length. That kind of consistency is part of why the strings feel even from fret to fret and why intonation settles where it should. It’s also why a small workshop in Venice can still hold its own against industrial production.

Bass Lines We Carry

Dogal’s electric bass catalogue covers three distinct voices, and we stock all three:

• Nickelsteel — nickel-plated steel winding over a hexagonal core. The everyday workhorse: bright on top, full underneath, fast to settle in. Versatile across genres, friendly on the wallet, and a great way into the brand.
• Carbon Steel Round Core — an exclusive carbon alloy wound over a round core. Completely nickel-free, soft under the fingers, with serious output and long sustain. Warmer than most rounds without losing growl — built for rock and anything that wants heat.
• Hellborg Signature — the Jonas Hellborg collaboration. Pure nickel on a stranded multicore (Dogal’s adaptation of their bowed-instrument technique), launched in 2021 after more than three years of development. Low tension, exceptional flexibility, and an overtone series that lines up cleanly with the fundamental. Light gauges that let the notes bloom with very little effort.

Made in Italy, Properly

Everything Dogal makes is handmade in Italy — not assembled there, not finished there. Made there. The workshops are still in Marghera, on the Venice mainland, and the production runs are small enough that you’re holding something that came from one set of hands rather than one machine.

Why We Carry Them

Boutique strings are usually a hard sell: most players default to whatever’s on the wall at the local shop. Dogal earn their place because they bring something the big string brands don’t — a workshop sensibility from a tradition that’s been making strings for stringed instruments since long before electric bass existed. The Hellborg set is the obvious headline, but the everyday Nickelsteel and Carbon Steel rounds are quietly excellent too, and worth a try if you’ve been on the same set of D’Addario or Elixir for the last decade.

Hand-wound in Venice. In stock at Bass Buddha.