Ed wrote: > Franceso is absolutely correct. Going from a .40 to a .38 will not > improve > string life. The smaller diameter does not have enough fibers to support > a
In my experience, it does. Take my archlute, 64cm. It has to be in 415 as well as 440. At 415 a 0.40mm first string will have to endure 36N. Workable. At 440 I use a good quality 0.38mm which will be stretched to something like 37N. That's getting dangerous, but a string will usually last two to three weeks, but at least one week. When I tune the instrument from 415 to 440 I leave on the 0.40mm top string till it breaks. That's quickly, usually, no wonder at a little over 40N! The other way around, however, when I tune down from 440 to 415 the 0.38 will last very, very long at 33N. It's a little sloppy, but still quite responsive. So my experience is that a good quality (Nicholas Baldock) 0.38mm (64cm, 415, g', 33N) gut will last many, many weeks on a much (ab)used instrument. Francesco wrote: >>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. Exactly. My 62cm 10-course is tuned at 415 and a first string normally lasts for many weeks. I had a bad-luck weekend. That is what I was saying. David To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
