On Friday 19 August 2005 16:04, you wrote: > Hi Taco, > I am working on such problem since few years. > I am quite sure that, at the Weiss' time, basses were open wound on gut > cores. > No plain gut at all: simply it do not work. > I have made some samples of such open wound strings and I must say that > they are very interesting. > There are a lot of thecnical and musical 18th C. sources that permit this > conclusion: that d minor bass lute strings were open wound on gut cores.
Hi Mimmo, Thanks for the extensive answer. Which sources do you mean? And do you have evidence on that from measurements of pegholes? The hole should be smaller I agree that plain gut perhaps didn't work, but german baroque lutes (theorboed) have much longer basses. If wound strings were used, this theorboneck was not necessary at all.... Second: plain gut was also not used on 11 course and I think 10 course lutes. They used loaded gut as can be seen on pictures and read in several documents. You wrote a very interesting article on that several years ago (still on your website). I'm using loaded gut on my 10 course and I'm very satisfied with the result, so why was this still not used on baroque lutes? Third: wound strings were perhaps used, but on violins even Mozart mentioned, second half 18th century that he strongly advised NOT to use such strings. So, i'm not so sure about your claim. Taco > > First: the first mention of silk bass cores is of 1760's (Corrette): before > this time wound strings were always made with gut cores > > Second: the thinner metal wire of the 18th c. was in the region of > 0.12-0.13 mm before stretching (I mean before winding on the core: it get > thinner of a certain ammount). > As consequence, in the4 range of 2.5-3.0 Kg, was not possible to produce > any close wound strings in the region of 6th, 7th, 8th and, easily, 9th > bass course. > Third: after le Cocq (1724) the so called 'demifilè (open wound strings) > must be made taking in consideration that the space between two metal > turns must be the same of the wire gauge or just a bit more. > > Fourth: some guitar methods suggested to cover the same gauge of the octave > paied to obtain the bass string of the course > > I have made samples of such strings following all the historical > indications. Tghe sound is completely different than the modern ones > This is why need still a deep work in matter of historical d minor lute > stringings: the sound is very deep on the fondamental while it last less > time than the modern basses. > As consequence it is indispensable put the little finger close to the > bridge. > Mimmo > > > Listening to a recordings of Weiss and Hagen by Roberto Barto I have been > > wondering several times what kind of strings were on his lute. Sometimes > > it > > sounds like gut sometimes it's quite "un" -gut. The difference is very > > clear > > if you listen for example to recordings by Toyohikoh Satoh who uses low > > tension gut strings on all his lutes resulting in a short warm bass > > sound, something which can also be heared on early recordings by > > Hopkinson smith on > > his 17th century lute. It's no question about the marvelous technique of > > playing and interpretation by Barto, but I surely prefer the sound > > Satoh's lute. > > Now I came across the explanation: Barto uses nylon for the two > > topstrings, > > gut for some other strings, Savarez again for bass strings with gut > > octaves. > > What would be the purpose of that? > > It's cheaper, but I don't think that is an explanation here. > > Taco > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
