Hi again Herbert, Martin, Arto et al., I have just spoken with the technician at Savarez. They are redoing their website and hope to update their string calculator at some time in the future. In the meanwhile I managed to get some explanations regarding their reference numbers for over-wound strings. They offer silver wound strings (NFA), copper wound strings (NFC) and plastic wound strings (NFP). I have never tried the latter but Savarez recommend them for transitional strings on theorbo-necked instruments. I would be interested if anybody has any feedback on them. The numbers correspond to the PUL (linear density). For example, NFA 230 is a silver wound string with a PUL of 2.3 g/metre. The silver and copper strings have different reference numbers because copper is slightly less dense than silver and to compensate the inner core is thicker so as to give the same tension. One can calculate the tension with the following formula, making sure to use the same units for SL and PUL (I hope I've got it right, I'm not a mathematician by any stretch of the imagination!): 4 x the frequency^2 x string length^2 x PUL This gives tension in kilos, for Newtons divide by 9.8 The technician gave me specific tensions for your baroque lute 9th course fundamental (E at a'415): NFA 230 gives 2.7 kgs NFA 250 gives 3 kgs NFA 275 gives 3.1 kgs Strangely, when I do the calculations with his formula I don't get quite the same results so maybe he was using a more complex formula (or winding down for his afternoon nap). I think Paul Beier's calculator is definitely the way to go for simplicity's sake. Otherwise, why not use Kuerschner or Aquila, their references use gut equivalent diameters and so are very straight forward for tension calculations? Anyway, one string down, 23 to go! Best, Matthew On 25/04/2016 05:00, Herbert Ward wrote:
As an experiment, I put extremely light strings on my baroque lute. This made the tone very difficult to control. This is pretty good practice, but in a month or two I need to venture out of the house with the lute. So it's string buying time. Can someone give me a Savarez PUL number for the fundamental of the 9th course (E) at AA5 with a 68.5 cm string length? Also helpful would be an indication of whether the PUL corresponds to heavy, medium, or light stringing. Google searches gave nothing useful. To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html . -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html