Same here on an 11-course B-lute and 6-, 8- and 10-course R-lutes: Pistoys on the basses, no metal.
On 30 November 2012 22:10, Edward Martin <e...@gamutstrings.com> wrote: > I also use Pitoys by Dan Larson. I have a 67.5 cm 11-course lute, > tuned in a = 415. For the 11-th course, a low C, I use a 2.04 > Pistoy. I use -no-metal anywhere on this lute. It is fabulous, and > i actually like it better than wound, loaded, or gimped for that > course. And yes, it is very flexible because of the twist, and it > also has excellent intonation. > > ed > > At 02:47 PM 11/30/2012, William Samson wrote: >> Thanks Dan, >> That's encouraging. I don't think we should be content with >> flexibility in just the basses, though. It may or may not be so >> important for the trebles and means, but the old trebles and means were >> indeed flexible and I think lute string makers should be trying to >> emulate this throughout the range. When any strings I order come in >> the form of 'bundles of knots', I'll feel we're approaching something >> like what the old ones were doing. >> >> I'm not too familiar with Gamut's terminology. I know that Mace >> describes pistoys as "none other than thick Venice-Catlins, which are >> commonly dyed, with a deep dark red colour." Is that the case? >> >> It looks like things are indeed progressing. >> >> Bill >> From: Dan Winheld <dwinh...@lmi.net> >> To: William Samson <willsam...@yahoo.co.uk> >> Cc: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >> Sent: Friday, 30 November 2012, 19:10 >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Gut strings - The elephant in the room >> Bill- >> In fact, some of the string makers are well aware of the stiffness >> factor; and have been trying to cope with it, and are coming up with >> increasingly flexible bass (where of course it matters most) strings. I >> have recently been able to go to an all gut "Pistoy" of Dan Larson for >> the 8th course fundamental of my Renaissance lute. About 63 cm, nominal >> G tenor, AA5, about 1.74 mm diameter string. Very flexible, no problems >> at all tying it around on the bridge, unlike so many previous attempts >> with gut or gut substitute strings of this thickness. And it sounds >> fabulous. With a 9 or 10 course lute of the right size and of this >> quality in string and instrument I would have no hesitation going down >> to the low C fundamental. I believe Mimmo Peruffo has also been trying >> to tame the elephant. >> Dan >> On 11/30/2012 10:30 AM, William Samson wrote: >> > Looking at all the discussion we've been having about gut strings >> - to >> > load, or not to load, to wind or not to wind, to twist or not to >> twist >> > . . . - one thing that hasn't come up for a while is how different >> > modern gut seems to be from the old stuff. >> > >> > When you look at old pictures showing gut being used to string a >> lute, >> > or the loose ends of gut hanging from a pegbox, it's clear that it >> was >> > much softer stuff than the wire-like gut we have today. For a >> start it >> > came in hanks. Try tying modern gut in a hank and it would look >> like >> > crap when you unravel it - kinked, cracked, opaque . . . I have >> no >> > knowledge of the differences between the manufacturing process for >> > modern gut and that used long ago, but it must have been quite >> > different. >> > >> > What difference would stiffness make? One possible difference is >> > inharmonicity - the tendency of harmonics to be sharper in stiffer >> > strings. This is something that piano tuners have to allow for >> > routinely - because of the stiff wire strings. That's just a >> guess, >> > though, and we won't know for sure until somebody makes old-style >> soft >> > gut and performs a comparison. I'd have thought this would be a >> fairly >> > straightforward thing for gut makers to do. Maybe somebody has >> already >> > done it? >> > >> > Bill >> > >> > -- >> > >> > >> > To get on or off this list see list information at >> > [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >> >> -- >> >>References >> >> 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > 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 > > > -- ******************************* David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl *******************************
