Nigel
I agree with Ed, it takes a few months for Pistoy an Venice to
come up/down to their final thickness. The more supple a string, the
more it will finally stretch and end up slightly thinner.
The surface texture will also change slightly over that period, so
that such a string may improve even over a year or so.
Ed was speaking about the advantage of low tension-thinner strings,
just a few weeks ago. Perhaps that is another area to investigate,
but I think it means playing closer to the bridge.
I have not tried that myself, so I really just throw that out as a
suggestion.
Just a few weeks ago, I heard a young player with a lute strung in
gut; and to me it sounded excellent. The player was completely new to
gut and could not stand the touch or the sound of it.
I think it is like many things, you come to expect a particular feel
and sound, and anythig which is slightly different seems abnormal
(just think of people's habits with tea and coffee).
Regards
Anthony
Le 24 oct. 07 à 00:08, Edward Martin a écrit :
Nigel,
That is interesting, that a 1.24 and 1.12 string seem too thick,
as on my
much shorter baroque lute, 13 course with a bass rider, I use a 2.0
for the
13th course! Perhaps you are unaccustomed with the use of gut, and it
sounds "tubby" to your ear. Give it 10 days to 2 weeks. After the
gut
settles in, it does tend to sound clearer, after stretching. After 2
weeks, if you are still dissatisfied, you could try metal, such as
a gimped
string.
When I switched to gut, about 12 years ago, my baroque lutes
sounded tubby,
but after one gets used to it, and also knows how to play it, it
sounds
better. With a major change in string material, a change in your
perception of clarity of sound will come.
My 2 cents worth.
ed
At 11:24 PM 10/23/2007 +0200, Nigel Solomon wrote:
I have just put gut strings on the long basses on my theorbo (170
cm),
they all sound great except the 13th and 14th courses which sound
a bit "tubby"
The diameter is 1.24 (14th) and 1.12 (13th) (4 kg per string) .
Perhaps
they are a bit thick, should I use some sort of loaded gut for the
bottom 2?
Nigel
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