The Conscious Polisher

That's me , or at least this is what I was in Aquila from 2002 up to 2016...

On gauge imposed on a string by the polishing process... why half polished are definitely better and why the quality control and the polishing must be done by the same person.

Want to know more? There's a downloadable report here, it's free, no opt-in required!

Roughly Polished

When I suggest roughly polished strings instead of smooth heavily polished ones, I often receive a squint like I am interfering with personal choices on musical taste, or with technical issues of an instrument which I have never seen, let alone played.  It’s always been difficult for me to explain why I am firm on this

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Tags

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


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BBC How it’s made: Gut Strings

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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Polishing and gauging

How the gauge is determined at the polishing and on half polished and smooth strings…. Can you guess why you can never be sure of the quality of a polished string? Want to know more? There’s a downloadable report here, it’s free, no opt-in!

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Is Gauge the main thing?

Is Gauge what really matters most when we are looking for the right string? Yes, of course, Gauge is an objective measurable factor in a string. Easy measurable. And it is the thing early music brands use to label a string, so it is universally accepted as THE thing we should matter of. I am not

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