> So, what's the moral? Sh$t happens, strings do break. Could I > have avoided this? Of course, I was stubborn and used 0.40mm > first strings. 0.38mm would have been better because of the > lower tension. Secondly, I was a miser to use up my supply of Not at all. As many times it was pointed out, the thickness of a string doesn't affect the breaking point. That is different gut strings will break at the same tuning pitch, given a constant vibrating length, more or less independently of their gauge. It is a thing that can be demonstrated mathematically and proved empirically. On the contrary I would say that perhaps a tiny string is even more delicate and more easy to break. If the tuning pitch was a=440Hz I guess the problem is that 62cm is quite a long vibrating length for a lute tuned in g. A safe length for gut strung lutes tuned in g at 440Hz pitch is around 59-60cm. With this measure a gut chanterelle can last 2-3 weeks in normal conditions.
Francesco To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
