I replied earlier with my experience of chitarra battente stringing;
perhaps it got lost in the ether! Here it is again:
Re: [LUTE] Chitarra battente stringing
Saturday, 18 December, 2010 14:07
From: "Martyn Hodgson" [1]hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk
To: [2]l...@cs.dartmouth.edu, "Lucas Harris" <lucashar...@rogers.com>,
"Vihuela Dmth" <vihu...@cs.dartmouth.edu>, "Early Guitar Dmth"
[3]early-gui...@cs.dartmouth.edu
Dear Lucas,
Around 30 years ago I made a chitarra battente for the tenor Riccardo
Marasco (at that time living Florence).
It was based on a Sellas instrument with an arched back but the neck
was shorter than a comparable gut strung guitar. I think the string
length was around 62cm rather than around 68/69cm I used for gut string
guitars on this same mould. But of course the bridge was much higher
up (ie further towards the neck) than a gut strung guitar (around 13cm
rather than 9cm) and this therefore still allowed the 11th fret to be
at the neck/body joint. In retrospect I might now make the neck even
shorter since, when I came to string it up, I had problems bringing
the first course up to pitch (he wanted it to be able to come up to
A440) without breaking. This was also partly due to using iron
harpsichord strings which I thought was the closest I'd get to the old
iron/steel strings.
I've dug out my stringing and I'm interested to see that I put octaves
on both the 4th and 5th course with the bourdon outwards (ie struck
first with the thumb) - why? - I can't recall now.
1. e' 0.018mm iron x 2
2. b 0.023mm iron x 2
3. g 0.028mm brass x 2
4. d' 0.019mm iron
d 0.039mm brass
5. a 0.025mm iron
A 0.050mm brass (I would have liked to have used twisted brass
for this but couldn't master the technology!)
I based this spec on giving around 3.5Kg nominal tension with
approximately equal feel accross all courses - rather higher than a
comparative gut strung instrument but I think based on the sort of
playing ie robust strumming with a plectrum which I expected it to be
used for. And, of course, also evidenced by the need for a bend in the
belly like the metal strung Neopolitan mandolin.
I think the use of the same gauge string for all courses might be a
later peasant usage (ie multiple gauges being not readily available in
more recent times ie 20th century) but I know of no sources for
stringing from around the time the instrument seems to have been used
in the 18th (or 19th) century.
MH.
--- On Mon, 20/12/10, Eugene C. Braig IV <brai...@osu.edu> wrote:
From: Eugene C. Braig IV <brai...@osu.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Chitarra battente stringing
To: "'Lucas Harris'" <lucashar...@rogers.com>, lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Monday, 20 December, 2010, 16:50
I do have experience with using brass wire on early Neapolitan
mandolins. I
hope somebody with direct experience with chitarra battente also weighs
in.
Given the similarities in construction between early chitarra battente
and
early Neapolitan mandolins, I suspect the stringing was probably also
similar. Some of the mandolin methods published in Paris in the 1760s
do
prescribe stringing formulae.
At a scale length around 310-315 mm, I use brass around 0.28-0.30 mm as
a'.
Using Arto's String Calculator, this estimates tension equivalent (in
kg)
around 3.6-4.1 kg depending upon pitch standard, etc. Plain brass is
simply
rather fragile, and I plan to replace my a' strings with frequency. I
simply buy substantial coils of the preferred gauge from a local
harpsichord
maker to make mandolin strings (which involves nothing more than
cutting to
appropriate length and twisting a loop into one end to fix over the
hitch
pin).
My d' strings are two similar brass wires twisted together. Dan
Larson's
Gamut Strings in the US used to sell twisted-brass strings for early
mandolins as did NRI in the UK. Unlike plain brass, the twisted brass
is
quite durable, so I haven't replaced mine for a long while. I don't
know if
either entity is still selling it.
The low octave on the g course is silver-wound silk, which is a little
"thumpy" in tone compared to wire, so it is paired with a g' in plain
brass.
I use gut (or gut-like synthetic; quill can fray fine gut rather
quickly)
around 0.50 mm on my high e'' course. I would imagine very similar on
the
e' of early chitarra battente at around twice the scale length.
Luck,
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [4]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
[mailto:[5]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
> Behalf Of Lucas Harris
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 10:19 PM
> To: [6]l...@cs.dartmouth.edu
> Subject: [LUTE] Chitarra battente stringing
>
> Hello, friends!
>
>
> I have a question for anybody out there that might have more
experience
> with metal strings than I do.
>
>
> I'm struggling to set up a new chitarra battente, which arrived
(as is
> the tradition) with the same thin steel string gauge across all 5
> courses. So, the first course (e) is super tense, and the third
course
> (g) is slack like spaghetti, and everything else is somewhere in
> between. The problem is that the spaghetti courses go super sharp
when
> fretted, so it's really hard to tune any chords (i.e., even E
major has
> the G# on the first fret which is already screaming high).
>
>
> I put some brass strings (from my bandora case) on the G and A,
and it
> really helped the tuning and got the instrument through its first
> concert. However, all of the brass strings have broken, one by
one.
> I'm really not sure why - the tension was not so high, and
although the
> coils are pretty old I wouldn't have guessed age to make much
> difference in a metal string.
>
>
> Anyway, I'm wondering if anybody has experience trying to string a
> battente in a way that is more equal-tension-ish (like a lute or
> Baroque guitar) perhaps with harpsichord strings, and if so if
they
> would share their stringing chart with me. Any prompt help would
be
> appreciated (the instrument needs to be playable by Sunday - in a
pinch
> I will just put the spaghetti strings back on).
>
>
> Many thanks!!!!
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> Lucas Harris
>
> --
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk
2. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. mailto:early-gui...@cs.dartmouth.edu
4. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
5. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
6. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=l...@cs.dartmouth.edu
7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
