> I have not used gut strings on a Baroque instrument, however. It > would be best to ask advice from those that have. I know that David > van Ooijen amongst others, uses all gut on his Baroque lutes.
Dear Anthony It's nice to know one doesn't even have to play a single baroque lute to be known as a player who plays more than one. I must confess to having rather many lutes, and, yes, all are strung in gut from varous makers like Gamut, Aquila, Kuerschner, Cathedrale and Sofracob, but none are baroque lutes, actually. I'll quote you on my CV from now on. But more to the point, I tend to use Sofracob for courses two to four and for octave strings on the basses. They're cheap, have a good gutsy sound and come in 3 meter length. I you make a large enough order the 10 euro handling fee is no problem because the strings cheap. Furthermore, with _really_ large orders you'll get a discount. I even use 0.40 Sofracob as a first course for studying purposes. Life expectancy anything between 0.3 sec to three weeks. Sofracob strings have a good balance between mellow, warm sound and clear attack with 'clean' sound. Not as warm as Gamut, but treble gut by Gamut can be a bit too warm and therefore dull on some of my lutes, and not as sharp and thin as Kuerschner, although on some instruments I like to use Kuerschner for the first course. My baroque guitar is all Sofracob. Perfect for the instrument. David - should get a baroque lute, one day **************************** David van Ooijen [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.davidvanooijen.nl **************************** To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
