Hi, Taco. Dan has a very cordial relationship with Mimmo. Although they might seem to be competitors, I do not believe there is any animosity between them, and neither party has suffered due to efforts of the other. Mimmo is also a friend of mine, as I have (and continue to) advocate his strings, and Mimmo quite often has me sample new items, which is something I am most appreciative from him. He truly wants my feedback, not thinking of competition. In short, Mimmo is a fabulous person, and his impact on our lute world has been immense, and we all have benefit from his fantastic strings.
As you know, Dan is my friend, and neighbor as well! Lucky me- it is about a on-minute walk to his home, and sometimes that is all I have to do to get strings. But for the most part, I have do either drive one mile, or walk there for strings, lutes, vihuelas, and repairs (I know, I know, poor me!). I am indeed fortunate to have a "friendly neighborhood lute builder and string maker", literally in my neighborhood. By the way, Dan's work is also fantastic, on instruments and strings as well. I cannot speak for Dan, and I would never make a statement about whether or not he would consider re-visiting the loaded gut venue. I do not think Dan has loaded gut since the 1990's, but he certainly does make gimped strings, and in my opinion, they do sound close to loaded gut. His silver sterling gimped strings are, in my opinion, superior to the copper gimped. The thing is, the gimped strings seem to be a very high quality string, as is the Pistoy that Dan makes; they are always very true. There is no problem with good quality with Gamut Strings, and the sound and feel is wonderful. Mommo's and Dan's strings are of equal quality and sound, in my opinion. Some Europeans order directly from Dan, and I know that he does, or has had some European distributors. So, as awful as the situation sounds from Europe, there _are_ good available strings, although for the Europens, they are from distant shores, the USA. We have come so far in the world of strings, both synthetic and natural. I feel very badly about this situation as well. ed At 09:35 AM 11/16/2011, Taco Walstra wrote: >On 11/16/2011 01:41 PM, Edward Martin wrote: >>Dan is in the UK at the moment, but I am unaware of any stoppage of >>gut string making from his shop. He has 4 employees making gut >>strings, and one is my daughter. I am aware of no lay-off plans. >> >>Dan does use beef gut for trebles, simply because they are better, >>stronger, longer lasting. >> >>ed >Don't know how the relation is between Dan and mimmo, but wouldn't >it be possible to make the loaded gut strings in the USA by >Gamutstrings using the recipe of mimmo and pay a small fee to Aquila? >Unfortunately Gamutstrings stopped all work in this area, but I >really love this kind of strings. even -just as in the old times - >they are sometimes not quite well when new (for example in >positions), aging etc. But the tonequality is magnificent. >Taco > > >-- Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com voice: (218) 728-1202 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name http://www.myspace.com/edslute http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
