5. Conclusions:
Be Practical!!
So far, you can probably guess my conclusion:
If you aim to follow the treatises you shall not give a letteral interpretation but a practical one, and admit that equal feeling, equal tension, and scaled tension, had the same meaning: the aim is always playing on an even instrument.
But if we cannot trust pure math, what we can do?
Finding our perfect gauges, perfect for our instrument, our fingers and our preferred brand or kind of strings, it is a matter of just a few empirical tests.
..and, just in case you missed it, here is my post about how to do it:
A simple method to find the string gauges perfectly fitting your instrument Did you ever had the sensation that something was not balanced in your set of strings, but you couldn’t decide wether going thinner o thicker? It happened so many times to me, until I learned this simple trick! You will need no maths or treatises,
Read MoreHere are some more resources. I highly recommend the articles by Daniel Larson because he keeps it very simple
Tags
baroque music, double-bass strings, early music, equal tension, gut strings, gut strings history, gut strings maintenance, gut strings manufacture, viol strings, viola da gamba strings, viola strings, violin strings, violoncello strings
4. Complications! Another thing affecting a lot our pure math is the arching of the bridge: of course low first (and fourth? ) need to be bigger than high third and second. So, scaling tension is required Plucked or bowed instrument: the big string offers more friction under the bow so someone may think a smaller string
Read MoreHow a set of strings was composed: keep it simple! With only 4 “gauges” of pure gut and two gauges of silver wire they could cover all the strings from violin to cello!
Read More3. Mystery unveiled: Strings Do Stretch!! …but… not in the same way, not of the same cohefficient… it depends on how are made and, first of all, from their gauge We need to consider the many factors affecting our pure math calculations: the first is, of course, the string! A string which is low twisted and maybe
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