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Breaks are not unpredictable, they're just one of the many things we have to learn how to avoid
Short life of the string: unfortunately a common problem today. Let’s try to give it a definition so that we can understand when our strings are normally working, and we just have to accept there is a period in which they are not at their best, and when we should complain with the maker.
It is fundamental that musicians give a feedback to the maker because a QC cannot put strings in working conditions to check them, so there may be things that the maker really cannot imagine and maybe they would be easy to be solved.
An exploding string is really frustrating, but the good news is that very often it is something we can fix visiting our violin maker and having him check the instrument so that everything is very smooth.
It may also be responsibility of the string maker of course, but when this is the case the string had so big defects that you could probably have noticed before, as shown in this post:
What to check and what to avoid when you are choosing your strings. The most important thing to check is that the twisting of your string is even in the whole vibrating lenght. No white spots, no open twist, no different angles. You can easily feel those by Mersenne’s test. What is less important is the
Read MoreWhen it is really something we cannot help, we can only complain with the maker and ask him for some replacements.
If possible ask for replacements of a different period of production. The bad news here is that there is very little a string maker can do in these cases, apart from throwing away most of the production. The problem is on the side of the slaughter house, and they normally don’t allow people there to check their process...
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baroque music, double-bass strings, early music, gut strings, gut strings history, gut strings maintenance, gut strings manufacture, viol strings, viola da gamba strings, viola strings, violin strings, violoncello strings
Why I don’t like varnished strings: Maybe if you live in a very humid place, like Vietnam or Japan, it looks like this is the only solution. It may be true in fact if you want to buy a “ready to use” string.But if you have the patience of organizing your olive oil process and
Read MoreEverything 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.
Read MoreGood gut strings: where do they come from? What does really make a difference for the quality of a gut string: in my opinion, the first factor which really affects the final quality of a string is that the numbers of gut strands used is balanced to the gauge we want to obtain. This is
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