Hi Stuart,
I know how you and others feel that gut is too expensive but I feel I ought to put my experience out there.
10 years ago I bit the bullet and bought 5th and 6th course fundamentals of roped gut. They came in a length that if not cut and the remainder wrapped around the peg box (JHerringman-style at the time) I would get 2 working lengths from them.
At this point I still haven't gone to the 2nd length. They sound great, they're in tune on the 7th fret and I never get that WAAoooooaaw overlong classic guitar sound that remains on the stage long after the guts have retired to the pub. The 6th was somewhere between $25 and $30 and the 5th was about $20. I think the prices are still close to that and for 10 years (plus) I have appreciated the investment over and over. The octaves, otoh, come and go.
Granted I play 6-c but from what I saw on Ed Martin's 7c, the filament +gut for diapasons should fill out the 7th and 8th courses (and beyond) just fine.
So forgive me for the age-old whining about the gut basses. I tend to save money but putting modern on the top and sometimes 2nd courses and 4th 8ve where the cost would come up again and again. (And this is where, for my porpoises, the new nylgut shines best) If I have an important performance I swap out the trebles and can go back to the same nylguts later.
best wishes, Sean On Jun 19, 2012, at 1:02 PM, WALSH STUART wrote: I haven't changed the strings on my lute in a long time and I need to replace them. I can't remember the details of the ones I have on now. Gut is too expensive but any advice for anything else would be very welcome. Typical G lute, A440, string length 60cms. Thanks Stuart -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
