Nigel
According to Mimmo Peruffo, his new loaded strings would be more
stable to temperature and humidity influences even than synthetics.
I imagine this could be due to the loading by a sort of tanning
process. Perhaps the oxide? covering protects the string.
A lutist neighbour of mine had the possibility of actually trying out
these strings on Mimmo Peruffo's lute in a small room at the
Greenwich meeting, in England, for over an hour and with only two
other persons present.
Obviously the lute was completely strung in Aquila gut, but the
middle strings were in Venice, the basses down to 11c were loaded,
and the basses down to 13c were open wound Mest types.
First, he was struck by the fact that the change from bass to middle,
and to treble was so exceptionally smooth. This was a stated aim of
MP in a message he sent to us; but this lutist felt he had never
heard a lute with such a smooth change. He was a little surprised at
the quality of the sound, as the lute itself had a crack in the
soundboard.
However, he tells me the basses really had him amazed. He says it
might not be noticeable when you change one string, but when you have
all loaded gut basses + Mest, there is a completely different
response to the instrument. It is as though there is a slight delay
and then a sudden development and then a rapid decay, (perhaps, like
a consonant followed by a vowel), so that there is absolutely no
overhang like with wirewounds.
Actually, that sounds much like I have always found with gut basses;
but on previous occasions, he told me, he had found gut basses just
too thick, and unresponsive, these were different, he clained. The
loaded strings must be thinner, of course. He said the sound is in
some way more "earthy" with more texture. I think that means
something like "terroir" for a wine, if you know what I mean.
The whole sound seemed so well articulated, he said.
Now, I do hope those strings will soon become available, but I
certainly would not want to put Mimmo Peruffo under any pressure. I
am sure his time (and my patience) is an essential ingredient, just
like the production of a top wine …
Best regards
Anthony
PS I am not myself down rating any other string types. I am not too
bothered by thickish strings and I like Larson gimped. However, the
more variation there is in gut strings the more chance there will be
for finding the right strings for a particular lute. I am happy with
Venice strings on my Gerle, because they allowed me to remove a
certain bass heaviness, probably due to the plummy Gerle shape (well
actually that is what the sound was like, plummy mid-bass). It is not
clear that would be what you are looking for on a different shaped lute.
Le 2 déc. 07 à 16:46, Nigel Solomon a écrit :
Edward Martin wrote:
Yes, Nigel, I do it all the time. In fact, I had a concert in
humid August this year, in which I performed on a Scottich
mandour, an 11 course, and a 13 course bass rider lute. All are
in gut (that is all I have had for baroque lutes for the past 12
years), and I did not have to adjust one single peg to re-tune.
The only time I have tuning trouble is when the climate is changed
during performance (i.e. someone turns off air conditioner, etc)
The gut these days is so much more stable than the gut of some
years ago. I actually find it easier to deal with, as compared to
wound strings.
ed
At 10:40 AM 12/2/2007 +0100, Nigel Solomon wrote:
(has anybody ever tried keeping 24 gut strings in tune successfully
for the time needed to play a single Weiss courante?).
Edward Martin
2817 East 2nd Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55812
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
voice: (218) 728-1202
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detecte.
Oh well, that told me! I guess you have to get to the venue hours
before though to enable the instruments to adjust to the humidity.
I am not flying a flag for synthetic strings, just that on the
whole they are
a little more reliable (particularly Pyramid wound which, despite
sounding a bit tinny at first, just don't budge whatever the
weather, etc. On my theorbo I have one wound Pyramid, the 6th (A)
and I use it as a reference for keeping all the other strings in
tune throughout the concert)
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