Mimmo confirmed me a few days ago, when I phoned him, that the problem with Sofracob was indeed related with this EU law about gut. Then, as far as I know, it is the same company that sells gut stripes to every string maker (except Toro and Stoppani perhaps? I don't know and Toro doesnt make lute strings anyway...), so the problem of bad quality of the prime matter will probably surface for every producer of gut strings, soon or later.
Kürschner - from the catalog they say: "plain gut (polyester)" so I wonder if those strings are gut or polyester. Pyramid made gut strings in the past but I don't see gut mentioned anywhere in their site now. Stoppani - I heard that he makes only bass and midrange strings, not chantarelles, but I cannot say because there isn't a string catalog on his site. Kathedrale - I don't know: there isn't a string catalog either Both Stoppani and Kathedrale seems to me like small companies, probably not able to fill the string shortage. The situation doesn't look bright... Francesco > -----Original Message----- > From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On > Behalf Of Bruno Fournier > Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 3:39 PM > To: b...@symbol4.de > Cc: simon.lamb...@stfc.ac.uk; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Gut strings > > Hi All,A > > One thing for sure, when I spoke to the Sofracob owner last year before > he closed, he mentioned that one of the main reasons and problems, was > the mad cow disease issues in France over the last few years, and that > it was becoming more and more difficult to obtain gut. A So who knows > what the real story is. A Did anyone ask Mimmo directly? > > regards > > BrunoA > > Montreal, Canada > > On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 9:00 AM, <[1]b...@symbol4.de> wrote: > > A >Does anyone know if Kuerchner in Germany is still making gut > strings? > A Or Kathedrale (?). > > A It is quite funny - and also a little bit alarming- to see, how > the EU > A bureaucracy becames the projection area for the strangest ideas > and > A fears. A reputation well earned, some may say, but a little bit > more of > A horse sense is recommended when one reads announcements like the > one > A about gut strings - (or, before, the one about the alleged > prohibition > A of natural medicine). > A In fact many people here in Brussels are quite normal. I as a > German > A was at once sure that it must be a hoax, because we eat every day > A 12.689.344 sausages, many of them with a delicious skin of sheep > gut. I > A called a big producer of those so called "saitling" sausage > skins: they > A are producing happily and will go on forever. The same with > Kuerschner > A strings. > A I asked people form the health department of the EU commission: > guts no > A topic at all. > A If you want to read really strange laws, read your national > legislation > A :)) > A So: No idea, where the gut story comes from. > A Perhaps we should still start in the good tradition one of those > A internet petitions ;) > A best wishes (while wishing is still allowed) > A Bernd > A -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > A > > Bruno Cognyl-Fournier > > A > > [3]www.estavel.org > > A > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:b...@symbol4.de > 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 3. http://www.estavel.org/
