Dear Ed, A very interesting thread, this. I'm sticking my head a bit above the parapet this time just on a point of information. A roped gut string will always be a bigger diameter than a loaded string because it is less dense. In fact it will also be bigger and more difficult to finger than a smooth-surfaced gut string of the same density and mass.
Recently I unearthed some roped gut strings which I made and used some years ago. They were flexible and true (and not very "knobbly"), but compared to a plain gut string they have a duller, softer sound. I think it must be because the strands of the rope are free to slide against each other to some extent, or there are small gaps so they are not fully in contact. But it convinced me that the "final solution" to the problem of gut bass strings is not going to involve roping. Incidentally a pretty strong argument against roping is that none of the people who could have mentioned it did (Capirola, Dowland, Mace, Burwell) - in fact thay all say the signs of goodness are the same for bass strings as they are for treble strings: clear against the light, smooth, stiff to the finger. (for sources see my sit www.luteshop.co.uk under "Lute strings ancient and modern". It seems we have little alternative but to experiment with lower tensions. Best wishes, Martin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Stephan Olbertz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 9:44 AM Subject: Re: thoughts on low tension on Baroque lutes > > Stephan Olbertz wrote: >>this thread led me to re-read Segerman's article on his >>website at >>http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/LuSt.html > > Thanks for this. There is a lot of food for thought in that article. > He says: >>It is possible to approach the original type of sound balance with >>modern materials. We can twist nylon and PVF and make ropes out of >>them. We have been showing this stringing on a vihuela at the London >>Early Music Exhibition for some years now... > > This is exactly what I was wondering about the other day when I > listened again to a cassette lecture (available from the LSA) about > gut stringing by Damien Dlugolecki. Has anyone tried twisting NylGut > into Catlines or rope strings? > > I am definitely not satisfied with wound basses. My lute came with > loaded gut basses when I got it, which sounded great but were > useless, as far as I was concerned, because they were out of tune > with the octaves when fretted. One other problem with playing > technique is the difference in size between strings within a course. > If the difference is too great, it causes problems with the angle one > can use with the finger when fretting and bar chords. I would like to > know if roped strings are thinner than loaded gut strings with an > equivalent tension. > cheers, > -- > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
