Hi Arle
The limited success refers to the finnicky nature of the set up. It seems
highly unforgiving as far as cotton/rosin application goes and delights in
going to harmonics on some notes and rattling the playing key on others.
I've tried Pirastro Aricore, Corelli Crystal and several cheap viola c
strings and they all seem to give the same effect to some degree.
Going lighter using copper on gut eases the symptoms but the tone is rather
thin and it is too key pressure sensitive.
The best string I've found came out of my recycling box. It's viola length,
looks like silver on gut, has black silk windings on the ends and has an
outside diameter of 43 thou. Its excursion is 3/8" which is just about
tolerable .The packet has long since disappeared so no help there.I tried an
NRI string which looked identical but gave a very thin tone.
When it is happy, it has a great sound and gives the sound of an alto
instrument without the extra keyboard length. I have found that double bass
rosin ( well polished ) works the best.
Neil
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arle Lommel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: [HG] Chanterelle string for low D
Hi Neil,
How do you define "limited success"? What hasn't worked with what you've
tried? I admit that I can't help you here since I play in C/G with an
octave chanter using viola strings with no problem, but you want to go a
fourth lower and there I have no success. But in any event it would help
to know what the problem you've faced is exactly.
Part of the problem may be that you're really quite low. Balázs Nagy
experimented with chanterelles in the range you suggest for a bass
instrument and found that below a certain pitch (somewhere near where
you're talking about, if I remember correctly), the vibrational envelope
of the string gets too big for the tangents to effectively stop the
string (the string bounces off them or something like that), so you end
up with unclear intonation and other related problems. I don't remember
all the details, but he ran into these problems when trying to pitch a
Hungarian instrument down an octave, which would put it right near the
range you're talking about.
-Arle
On May 28, 2008, at 2:50 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi all
I'm not usually one to plead for help but this problem is costing a lot
of time and money so any help will be greatly appreciated.
I've just built a three chantrelle gurdy 345mm scale length and am
tuning it to normal D/G tuning . The third chanterelle is to be the next
octave D down.
Has anyone found a string to achieve a reasonable result at this pitch ?
I've tried a lot of viola C strings with limited success.
Regards
Neil Brook
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