Another characteristic of Carbon strings is that to my eye, they appear shiny & transparent, whereas nylon looks more dull & somewhat opaque.
Also, they "feel" different under the fingers. When plucking carbon, I notice that the string has almost no stretch to it, as compared to nylon. So, it is difficult to develop a sense of sensitivity with it (this is my opinion - I am sure that others can play sensitively with it, but I cannot). I never use carbon anymore, because of the high density, the sound is too shrill, for my taste. But, I think it might sound good on a very dull instrument. But, if you pick up an instrument & want to know if it is Carbon or nylon, Carbon is usually shinier, relatively smaller, and brighter in sound as compared to nylon. ed At 09:10 PM 4/11/2005 +0300, Arto Wikla wrote: >I wrote: > > > > How can one tell whether a string is carbon-fiber or nylon? > > > > One possibility to do it: > > 1. Measure the length, diameter and weight of the string (or some > > cut piece of it) > > 2. Use my "sub-calculator" in > > http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/Calcs/wwwscalc.html#P1 > > 3. If the density Kg/m3 given by my calculator is about 1000, it > > is nylon, if it is about a little less than 1800, it is "carbon". > > > > So carbon is nearly twice as heavy as nylon. > > >Hey! There is an easy way: Just put the string to water. If it clearly >sinks, it is hevier than water, which is just as heavy as nylon! So the >string material is hevier than nylon and water. Perhaps "carbon", or >at least "non-nylon". > >And if the string about stays in whatever deepness you set it, it should >be nylon! :-) > >All the best, > >Arto > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] voice: (218) 728-1202
