Dear Peter
No, you're not crazy, these things happen. Welcome to the world of
lutes where imperfection is the standard. I love it; it's not a bug,
it's a feature.
What you're describing sounds like overtone-trouble to me. Simple
solution: ditch the octave string and go for two fundamentals. Other
Dear Peter,
The reason that the octave is flat has to do with the fact that the difference
in string diameter makes you bend the base string more when you fret it.
I can't upload images here but maybe I can make it a little clearer thus
Imagine your sixth course thus: Oo
In order to press the oc
I just checked how it works on my lute and, yes, I get a slight
difference, too. I guess my ear has been absorbing it. There are a lot
of factors going into it so it'll be pretty complex trying to find the
root(s) of this. I'll assume you have your frets set to the proper
meantone place a
The difference in height-tension between the fundamental and the octave. A
little thicker octave helps.
To compensate, you can start with a single piece of paper, insert under the
octave on the nut - try for pitch. Fold it in two - try, in four - try.
normally as soon as you get it near the top
David,
I agree with you that these are the quirks of the lute that one can get
used to. I might also add that when individual strings of a course are out of
tune, it usually sounds worse to the player than the listener. I've had
several experiences of doing concerts in which I thought I w
OT warning: the CG-word is mentioned!
Chris wrote:
> I understand that many good classical guitars are starting to use something
> similar (this sort of thing has ironically been in use on $150 Yamaha
> classical guitars for years.
Classical Guitars these days often come with nut and saddle
co
Hello, Peter.
You have received many excellent responses, and I think that all
those who wrote are correct. Before you go to the effort to alter
the mechanical set-up of your lute, I would start with strings. One
of the reasons that I do not like nylgut is that to my ear, it often
sounds out
On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 4:37 PM, Edward Martin wrote:
> of the reasons that I do not like nylgut is that to my ear, it often
> sounds out of tune.
Agreed. There seems to be something funny going on in the harmonics of
nylgut strings. Thicker nylguts suffer more, or it's more obvious with
the thic
I'm starting to agree w/ Ed more on the idea that a monofilament
nylgut rings at more than one frequency, confounding the ear and tuner
box. Ironically, I think the near perfect smoothness and controlled
diameter do this. It is very near perfect when manufactured and
unstretched but chang
I have lived with this problem for some time, with both gut and
synthetics--most noticeable when I get to the 3rd fret (Bb). I've replaced
strings, checked for falsity, skewed my frets, etc. David's explanation
referring to relative stiffness of the two strings seems most reasonable to
me: I
Thanks Sean and David.
Although I am predominantly a gut player, I occasionally get this
problem at the 6th course, 3rd fret. I use a Pistoy gut fundamental,
and a treble gut (plain) octave. When new, they are the most true
strings I have tried.
The most usual problem starts when the 3rd oct
So true, Ed. It's especially noticable on that C major chord:
---
---
-d-
-c-
-e-
-f-
And then when the nylgut octave goes false _down_ and the fundamental
goes false _up_ it's really time to change strings ...or stop playing
anything that uses that combination. Unfortunately there's the
Thanks so much for all the responses! And so fast! I was afraid no
one would read something so long and convoluted as my post.
I have three distinct things to try that I have not yet done when
regarding the strings, including some combinations I have not yet
thought to try based on
Just a small correction, Sean - nylon is less dense than gut (about 10%
- but I'm sure someone will provide the exact figure). PVF is about 10%
more dense than gut. Nylgut is almost the same density as gut, but just
a little less dense, and also stretches more, so you often have to start
off
Thanks, Martin! I don't use them very often and that's probably a good
thing or I'd probably pull the bridge off. Does nylon stretch less
than nylgut? ie, Does less length go onto the peg before it reaches
pitch?
Sean
On Jul 11, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Martin Shepherd wrote:
Just a small cor
15 matches
Mail list logo
