Hello lutelovers, just few consideratations about the lute basses into the 18th c. Despite that the first mention of the wound strings date 1658 (Hartlyb = Poject...) and 1664 (Playford) we know nothing about a pratical = application on lutes. it is quite strange that Mace (1676) do not mention them in his very = acurate decription of the lute strings in use in that time. What to say about the lute bass strings after the mid XVII century? There is very few works on this subject. We can see, on old paints, some examples of bowed instrument with = probable wound silver bassses. In the case of violin and cello there = are paints of 1685-1687 (Gabbiani, Florence). For 5 string violone see = Puget, 1687. I have seen a paint of jean Baptiste Oudry of the 1713 year = were one can see the violin and a 5 courses guitar with some wound = strings (on guitar 4th and violine 3rd it is quite evident the half = wound types). There are other examples of the 1690-1730 year were it is = possible see white coured wound strings against the dark yellow of the = higher guts. But on lutes nothing, at the moment. Well, what bass string types were in use at the Weiss,' time?? >From some 18th C. Encyclopedies we know many things about 18th string = manufacturing; so we know that specific wound bass strings were not made = by stringmakers. They made gut strings of all gauges only. We know that = they were spinning and made wound by the luthiers or, sometime, by = musicians (see Crescenzio Hugar mid XVIII c. testament, see Galeazzi = (1792 year...). Fom old documents it is strongly evident that at the time strings were = in two sorts: or oiled plain gut (medium and high twist, I suppose) or = wound on gut. We have some useful indications how to make guitar wound bass strings: = Le Cocq in 1724 shows how to make them half wound on gut; latter they = were made close wound on silk. The so called 'demifil=E8 (half wound on = gut) was a very specific string of the 18 th century, no latter. We have = several sources of the time that wrote about this special wound string = type (Brossard 1705, Laborde 1791, Forqueraly 1760 about...). It is = quite hard to believe that the bass lute strings of that time were = different to the wound guitar strings suggested by guitar-treatises.
Raphael Mest- lute: on the old original bridge there are some little = pieces of bass strings on. They are half wound type on gut cores. What mean all this? I think that they are original, due to the fact that = a demifil=E9 on gut was a specific charatertistic strings of the 18th c = and no more. n guitars and harps they only switch close wound to silk = cores in mid 18th c. Well, I have made some copias of them and I have seen that their guges = fit well with the bridge stringholes found on survivng 13 course d minor = tuning lutes: holes are 1,5-1,8 mm gaugeon several 10-13 course d minor = tuning.The average of density of such half wound strings made recently = is similar to the loaded gut strings (please,they are not dead! They are = in sleeping for a while. I have stopped them to improve their quality; = soon I will made some new tests...); i.e. 2.0-2.3 time the gut density = against 3-4 times of the modern nylon wound strings . Their sound have = the focus put on the foundamental than on overtones; like the modern = wound strings do. Well, need today more investigation on the bass baroque d minor lutes! = Many play such instruments but no one made a serious searching on this = subject... I will discuss this to Puurs's meeting, 15 km far from Bruxelles next 30 = May. Ciao Mimmo Peruffo --
