On Jan 8, 2012, at 7:59 AM, Jeff wrote: > Research I did a number of years ago points to WWI as a significant > contributor to the early 20th-c switch from gut to steel. Within the context > of the debate about gut vs. steel strings for American guitars from those > years, at least one commentator noted the extreme shortage of good gut for > instruments. Once a strong advocate for gut only, she eventually played her > instrument with 2 top steel strings, citing the example of world-class > concert violin soloists like Maud Powell, Jacques Thibaud, Fritz Kreisler, > Efrem Zimbalist & Jascha Heifetz who had switched to a steel-E string during > the war.
It strikes me as odd that steel would have been a practical substitute for anything during WWI, because it is always in short supply in wartime. Some American companies built ships out of concrete during WWI for that reason. Perhaps there was prewar inventory. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
