Tim, Are you sure Nylgut is still nylon? And I don't quarrel here. As I understand it Nylgut is a proprietary product of Aquila (Italy?). And as Nylon is a patented formulation of DuPont the Nylgut must be a different formulation.
The question becomes whether Aquila has found a way to integrate the natural gut fibers into the Nylon formulation, or if they have just found a new formulation of the plastic. If it were the latter I'd think they would have left the Nyl out of the name, assuming that DuPont still has the title to the name. But then again the name might be public domain now and Aquila using it to bounce off the Nylon reputation. But were I them, and found a new totally plastic formulation I'd have called it Aquigut, or something. As a packrat I keep scraps for whatever, there is a test to try. I don't have a micro scale for weight/unit (density), but if the Nylgut is absorbant I should be able to observe that with a micrometer (which I do have) as it would swell when not under stress. A good thinking point Tim, thanks, Best, Jon BTW, I'm long gone from cracked fingertips and thumbs, I just have to use them more softly on the strings. the calouses from years of work and play are so deep that nothing will soften them. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html