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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
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
Read MoreHow polishing has changed through the centuries, from hand to machines …and, most important for us, from delivering on the market strings sorted by numbers of strands (so to say, in a 3 strands bulk you can find strings from 60 to 76) to deliver strings singularly packaged and labelled with a precise gauge. Polishing
Read MoreHere 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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