So: A gut chanterelle is the most desirable and yet the most fragile. Eliott Chapin, as he described in a previous posting to this list, has devised a way for extending the life of gut strings, chanterelles in particular:
1. Before assembling the string on the lute, raise it to the approximate tension under which it will operate. For example, attach one end to a nail or door handle, and hang a suitable weight on the other end. 2. Make a small wad out of tissue paper, Kleenex or what-have-you. 3. Put a few drops of Krazy Glue on the wad 4. Very quickly run the wad down the length of the string. As far as I understand it, the glue, which has a very low surface tension, quickly penetrates the fibres, and has the effect of binding them together. In my experience, the string will resist much longer before starting to degrade and fray. Miles Dempster On Saturday, February 5, 2005, at 03:49 AM, Jon Murphy wrote: > James, > >> It seems ironic for people who think gut has the best sound, to > sacrifice >> that sound on the chanterelle, where it probably has the most >> noticeable >> effect... It almost makes more sense (unless you can afford to buy >> all > gut strings) >> to have nylgut or nylon (which can literally last years) on every >> course > but >> the 1st and 2nd; and to use gut on those strings, where the melody is >> most >> often found. Just an idea... > > A good idea, but I think an impractical one for some lutes. And I > confess > that I've not tested gut yet for breaking pitch. > > With all due respect for the empiricals, I believe that gut and nylgut > - > having a very similar density - use the same tension for the pitch. > But that > gut has less "tensile strength" so can't maintain the same pitch > without > breaking as can nylgut. And I know, from experience, that nylon will > give > you about a half to full tone higher on the chanterelle without > breaking. > > So the problem of the lute is the chanterelle (there is a 16th C. > manuscript > that tells of the tuning, tune the chanterelle until it breaks, then > tune a > bit lower - an expensive approach as one has to replace the broken > chanterelle). The range of the lute is defined by the vibrating > length, and > the material of the chanterelle. But as it has a fixed length across > the nut > it is also defined by the lower courses. I'll give up for the night > here, > leaving the question open on purpose. > > Best, Jon > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
