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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
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
Read MoreHistorical gut strings manufacturing: cleaning with the thimble The last cleaning passage of the fresh gut was made using a copper thimble, pressing hard the thumb on the index finger. They did this 3 times a day for almost one week, using chemicals, and standing behind big tables with a parapet to protect them… G.
Read MoreDrying, polishing, packaging The strings dried and still on the frames were polished by hand, using horse hair, or equisetum, polish stone or powder, or, later, sandpaper. About horse hairs: equisetum is also called horse tail, so for a long time wi thought that when they say we polished with horse tail, they were referring to
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