Procession for the translation of the body of beatus Roberto da Salle, its 200th anniversary ( July 2007) Who is following me since the beginning of my Facebook page already saw this several times I’m afraid, sorry… But I simply love this video. I love this music, the mysterious beginning, the explosion of joy, this big

Mari strings, by Daniel Mari (formerly La Bella) Daniel Mari, born in 1927, now Mari strings, previously La Bella.When he was a boy, in Salle and in Sulmona, in the 40s, he helped in the gut strings factory and also in making bells, a particular production in which a branch of his family was specialized,

Pirastro in strings history.  Pirastro, the best modern gut string available on the market.A family-run company which was always a leader in innovation without giving up tradition. Chapeau!

Savarez in strings history.  From the castle of Savaresse Sarra, in Musellaro (a village just close to Salle), to Paris: a family of string makers who set one of the largest string factories in 18th and 19th century (the largest outside Italy), with more than 400 hired workers, all coming from Salle, Musellaro and Bolognano

Thomastick-Infeld in strings history.  Two of the greatest innovations of the 20th century come from Thomastick-Infeld, a company based in Wien: in 1914 they patented a machine to use the flat wire for the winding of a string, before of that the winding wire was always round, sometimes polished by hand after the winding process just before

The innovative concept at D’Addario strings The biggest innovation in strings concept coming from D’Addario was the Helicore set, in which, using a heavier metal in each string, they achieved a full set with the same gauge and same reaction under the bow. A big step in the direction of homogeneous sound in the full range

Thank you Michael Burnham for this great present!!

1/8 violin, seen by chance in a workshop in Italy. 1/8 violin, seen by chance in a workshop in Italy. What can we see from this? Same gauges as big violins, so violin strings. 1st missing. The 4th has as a core a 1st string. So, strings from the 20th century. 2nd and 3rd medium twist angle, 4th

1978, Salle, Italy:There was still one company selling pure gut strings sets following the old Italian tradition. Enrico D’Orazio produced music gut strings until his premature death in 1985.Let’s find out what type of strings are offered in his 1978 catalogue: History is sometimes filled with lucky and wonderful coincidences, but sometimes what could be

Price lists and catalogues are great sources of information: read with me this price list from 1929 by Pirastro and see what we find there!

Primary sources can be everywhere, even on an old little banjo arriving from eBay, directly from the 40s…

Historically informed ukulele players wanted. Ukulele: born on 23rd of August 1879 (one of the few instruments to have a precise date of birth). They had nothing else than gut strings, so this is what they used: a first and second string of a guitar.If you have a uke at home, try it with gut

Carl Flesch witnesses an age of profound changes in string settings.  Actually, he wrote right at the time of the first notable changes since the renaissance… Carl Flesch in 1920 was praising the long life of the new steel “e” strings: even more than one week! So comfortable and relaxing for a pro… Watch this video till

…and the creation of the first wound violin A  In this video I will read for you a correspondence between Roberto Salerni, an Italian string maker from the 50s, and the famous maker Pietro Sgarabotto.At first, Sgarabotto was anxious to try the wound A, being the A the only pure gut string remaining in a

Why most of the strings factories gave up gut production in the mid of the 20th century? I think there were two reasons for this. Not the advent of metal strings, or modern music, these were consequences. 1. The working conditions were not sustainable any more 2. The factories had to invest huge amount of money for disposal

Paganini asked for thin “e” strings… and got 70-72!

If you were to play in the Conzertgebow Orchestra in the 60s, which strings were you using? Some news on the strings used in Amsterdam in the 70s… (and we are not speaking of early music…)

The oldest certified violin String in the World…from Freiberger Dome.  It was far 2005 when Mimmo Peruffo received a call to go to Leipzig Museum and of course, I took the occasion to follow him: there they had found a string certified from 1594, the lower of a three strings piccolo violin… Let’s make a step

An autobiographical letter from Astro Di Russo – part 2 Due to the strong emigration, in 1960 I was forced to leave my village to settle in Naples. In Acerra, a nearby town with about 50,000 inhabitants, I started the production with 140 employees and later, in the 70s, I also opened a manufactury in

An autobiographical letter from Astro Di Russo, cordaio in Napoli – part 1 It was in October 2006, that I found myself sitting in a living room in Naples, thinking I was there just to take notes during a technical interview on string making… instead, that was the beginning of my research.  The old man sitting