Just found this on YouTube: maybe this way to make the loop knot of the string is easier than mine, though less elegant  here, to the post on how do I make it:  go to knot post

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Loop Knot

Making modern strings at the D’Addario factory (quite old video). It looks like the machine is the same used in the past, to make handmade wound strings. You’re guided by Jim D’Addario himself explaining what is critical in the process, and the sensibility required by the worker.

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Making strings at D’Addario

How many truths in this short clip? 1. For sure, when you learn to master gut strings you will have a good sound with any instrument or strings, you will earn your personal sound 2. The gestures, are the one of a truth string maker (or of a butcher). I can assure you, it’s like when you

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Hannibal (a well informed tv serie)

James Hill, Great ukulele virtuoso from Canada, playing a romantic song on my uke strung with gut strings… can’t you feel the sound of the 30s?

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James Hill playing on gut strings

…the idea came to a cello player… Sometimes, you wander around the web and you find little gems which only apparently have little to do with what you were looking for.  …but at a closer look… at 0’30 there are some historical pictures: note the dimensions of the factory and the name: Maillot is the actual

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Tennis gut strings

This video is a very accurate reconstruction of the historical manufacturing process. Thanks to Mimmo Peruffo for this. Note that he is using whole lamb gut.

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Historical manufacturing by Mimmo Peruffo

Sorry, this video is only in Italian, it would be too time consuming to translate it world by world. I just discovered this video from Takumi’s blog, which I recommend to you all, liuteriatakumi. I love it because most of these men and women I had the occasion to interview them personally in 2007, and the ones

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Interviews in Salle

Gut strings were used for music, surgery and tennis. Music strings were the most difficult to make: many different gauges, and a high quality standard. Managing orders with so many different products and dealing with musicians requests… it was not an easy task! While surgery and tennis were bigger markets and more safe, they also they required

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Modern gut strings at Bow Brand

A video from Superquark , ed. 2013. Superquark is a popular tv show in Italy, about science, art, history. It shows the manufacture of gut strings.  At 2.06 it’s me cleaning the guts with the copper thimble.

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Historical manufacturing on italian tv

This video is amazing! It shows many “secrets”, though I could not follow it all because I cannot speak Japanese. The beginning is very istructive: the method for cutting stripes is described in Labarraque, 1823. Never seen that applied before!From the mid on I could not really understand what he is doing and why, but

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Manufacturing gut strings in Japan

Everything it’s said in this great video is valid also for gut wound strings. Really clearly explained. We had round or ground wound (hand polished) until…. 1910 when Thomastick patented a machine to wound with flat wire.

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Wound Strings Features

From the famous BBC serie …the string maker is at minute 39′, the hands of the string maker belogs to Mr. George Stoppani

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Worst job in history

Here is the video from the famous BBC serie “How it’s made” , recorded in April 2012 in Caldogno (Vicenza, Italy) at the Aquila strings factory. We tried to prepare everything to show them the whole process, but they didn’t want to film the smelly initial part. I’m the one who plays and who scrapes the guts

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BBC How it’s made: Gut Strings

Bosko and Honey are two ukulele virtuoso players from Australia whom in 2008 toured the world with their project Ukulele Safari. Basically they were able to spend one year around the globe hosted from the network of ukulele players that they knew through their youtube channel. A great couple. They visited Vicenza participating to the first

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Bosko and Honey Aquila Factory Tour