0 comments
Why sometimes do we have to wait for our order at the string maker?
Why he cannot just decide to make our 85?
Sometimes planning a gut production is really frustrating: the gauge of the string is not only determined from the number of strands, but also from their width and from the twisting. The second is on the string maker experience and sensibility (more twisted=bigger, but we cannot change twisting to obtain a gauge, it would strongly affect the response of the string), but the first is depending from the slaughter house and it is not easy to check...
At the slaughter house the beef gut is cut by a machine in strands similar to the dimension of lamb gut and sheep gut, so that the string maker can follow the sources deciding how many strands to use to obtain a gauge.
Then, it may happen that from a bunch of strings he will obtain a huge quantity of 97 but very little of the best sellers 88 and 85, and the only thing he can do is to plan another production, which will be ready only in two weeks...
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
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.
Read MoreWhy if you work in difficult climate conditions it is fundamental that you use strings from only one company and you don’t do fancy mix up… Every strings tends togo back to its past conditions, so as every string maker twist them and stretches them differently, it’s really complicate to deal with strings from different
Read MoreMaking 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.
Read More