On Wed, 18 Dec 2013 05:11:40 -0500, alexander wrote > > there is a possibility of improving your situation. First you have > to make sure you know which way the string is twisted (clockwise or > counter). A strong magnifying glass might be of help. Next you need > to get one end of the string free, either the bridge end or the peg end. > Firmly holding the string, give it one or two turns in the direction > of the twist. Twist as much as possible without a distortion to the > shape of the string. Do not let the string to bulk on itself. Fix > the end of the string back where it belongs and raise the pitch. Of > course make sure the string does not untwist, and keep it somewhat > taut while holding. > > This simple technique might be enough to increase the string's > elasticity and make it more agreeable to finger pressure. There is > no difficulty to this, just some amount of common sense, and never > turn against the string's twist, as if the string is not glued well > together, it could be damaged. You could practice on a piece of fret > gut, to get a feel to it. Some strings can take quite a bit of twist > and actually be improved by this.
Hello Alexander, sorry, but I want to ask: did you ever try this out yourself and did it really work? Even if you really manage to fix the string after twisting so that it doesn't immediatly untwist twisting in such a way would cause the mass of the string to be unevenly distributed over it's length (because the string will be mostly twisted in the middle - take a rubberband, twist it and watch where the twisting happens ;-) And that will create a false string. Gut strings are twisted during assembly, while they are wet, not afterwards, when dried. @david: what exactly do you mean when you write "sensitve"? Does the string change pitch when you use more than minimal force to finger it? Yes, that's typical for low tension strings (as well as for metal strings ...) You need to spend a substantial amount of time pracising playing at low tension. "Dificult to get in tune" - hmm, low tension should result in easier tuning because you need more turning of the peg to get the same amount of pitch change compared to a high-tension string. As a matter of fact, shortly before the breaking point of a string, tiny changes at the peg will result in dramatic pitch changes - that's actually how you now that you are approaching the breaking point (without breaking the string). Cheers, Ralf Mattes -- R. Mattes - r...@inm.mh-freiburg.de To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
