Using your numbers, I calculate that to reach g at 440 Hz I could use a lute up to 660 mm string length using 260 Hz x m. In fact I can't get much above f with this string length. At 680 mm string length most top strings are true for less than a week at f. I think your numbers are too optimistic, but I note you've put "theoretically". In practical terms, bearing in mind modern string quality which may, or may not, be as good as in the 17th century, could you suggest:-
A Hz x m for practical limits, lasting bout a week before going false (This wouldn't be inconsistent with reports of it costing more to keep a lute in 17th Century Paris than it cost to keep a horse) - is this about 243? A Hz x m for about a month's playing (more consistent with modern expectations) A Hz x m for indefinite playing (say a year?) - perhaps 222, see below I note that on my tenor viol which I keep at a 415, the top string will last around a year if I drop the tension by a semitone (or even a tone) when I put it back in the case after playing. The sounding length is 600 mm. Of course if I do forget to lower the tension the string is often broken when I open the case again. So as the stress doesn't change with diameter at constant pitch, this sounds like the answer to the third question 370 * 0.600 = 222. Or do you find breaking stress is dependent on diameter? This would be expected at much smaller diameters (cf. composite materials and glass epoxy) but I suspect is not a very big effect at 0.40 - 0.55 mm diameters. Richard Corran On 22 May 2004, at 09:44, Mimmo wrote: > > The breacking index of nylgut is similar to the gut (i.e. 260 > Hzxmeter). = > This mean that, teorically, a lute in g at a-440 Hz must be have not = > more of 62 cms of vibrating string lenght. Nylon can be rech a > semitone = > higher. > Mimmo > -- >
