Dear Martyn (and All),
I'm not ruling out the possibility of loaded strings, but I do think the
evidence from bridge holes is mixed, in the sense that we would have to
be absolutely certain that a bridge with small holes was original.
Even with modern gut strings it's possible to string a 6c lute with only
plain gut (well, high twist or whatever) in the bass and also a 13c swan
neck lute! The difficult cases are the 8 to 10 course lutes, the 13c
bass rider type, also the liuto attiorbato, for all of which loaded
basses might well be the answer.
I can't send attachments to the list but I'm sending you another
painting from 1576 which shows strings very clearly and they're
remarkably thin.
Best wishes,
Martin
On 04/08/2016 14:55, Martyn Hodgson wrote:
Hello Martin,
Nice site and blog.
I seem to recall that when loaded strings first came out (25 yrs ago?)
that some of the evidence for their use was found in the small diameter
holes in some lute bridges. To maintain string tensions at around
present day levels the hypothesis was therefore that the old bass
strings would have been dense than plain gut - hence 'loaded'.
I also recall that somebody (might have been Eph Segerman) at the time
also pointed out an alternative for such relatively small diameter
holes: that the tensions of the bass strings might be much lower than
the upper courses. In short just as you're suggesting. My experience of
doing this at the time was that one needed to play very close to the
bridge to gain any projection and, of course, this is precisely what
most old sources (from c.1600 onwards) tell us. So you may be right -
that basses were often(always?) at a significantly lower tension than
the upper courses.
Having said this, I did like Mimmo's loaded strings very much and, of
course, they also possibly indicate loading because of their
distinctive colour. All food for thought......
regards,
Martyn
__________________________________________________________________
From: Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk>
To: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 4 August 2016, 12:51
Subject: [LUTE] blog post
Hi All,
Just to let you know that I have put up a new blog post - let me know
your thoughts.
[1]http://luteshop.co.uk/some-thoughts-on-string-tension/
Best wishes,
Martin
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
[2]https://www.avast.com/antivirus
To get on or off this list see list information at
[3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. http://luteshop.co.uk/some-thoughts-on-string-tension/
2. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
