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Good 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 why they used bigger guts for bigger strings, and smaller gut for smaller strings.
Try to imagine an extreme situation: If there will be not enough strands (like two) the string will be hardly polished and weakened.
This is why Paganini asked for cantini made out of four strands, when normally they were of 3...
twisting is the main factor to the capacity of our string to vibrate....
Imagine a string made with too many strands, like 100 (for a normal small gauge): it would be almost impossible to twist it and it will become stiff. Imagine a big rope of a ship. There is a close relationship between the number of strands and the twisting to obtain stiffness, resistance, or elasticity....
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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
What can we do to have longer lasting strings? So many factors determine the length of the life of the strings, but if you look at them one at a time, you will find that it is quite easy to understand what’s wrong and what we can improve. Often it’s something we can improve straight
Read MoreNot only sheeps or lambs… you will be surprised to learn! My sources for this video are the letters of Roberto Salerni, the interviews to the old string makers in Salle, and Labarraque “Nuovo dizionario universale tecnologico delle arti e dei mestieri…”, “Minugiaio”, Venezia 1823
Read MoreBreaks 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
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