Hi Steve, on Monday 16 January 2006 22:43, you wrote:
> I'm new to the lute email list and need some help. Welcome to the List! > It was strung with nylon for 1st, 2nd and 3rd courses, unison wound > strings for the 4th and 5th courses, and nylon octaves + wound > strings for the 7th and 8th courses. The 1st course is tuned to G. > > For my first question, is this the normal stringing arrangement (ie. > use of wound strings and use of octaves)? Normal way of stringing the octaves in 6 course lutes of 16th century is to have octaves for 4th, 5th and 6th. When they started adding courses and when string technology advanced(?), the 4th got an unison couple, and perhaps also 5th. As far as I know, the 6th had always(?) the octave, as did the extra basses. (Well archlutes and theorboes had single basses....) Using the octaves in an 8 course lute is highly a matter of taste, I think. Personally I either would use octaves for 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th. Or only 6th, 7th and 8th. So personally I like that 4th and 5th have the same system. But I guess opinions will vary. > Besides being a different setup these strings have far too much > tension for a 63 cm mensur, the wound 4th strings broke as did the > 5th and 6th octave nylon string. Once I realized what was going on, I > released the tension on these to avoid destroying the lute. I am > guessing these strings are for 59 cm or less but that's what came > when I ordered them. Perhaps some help for choosing the plain strings could come from my old String Calculator: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/Calcs/wwwscalc.html One way of using the calculator could be: 1) Tune some string to a tension that feels and sounds good. 2) Check out what is the picth of the note. 3) Calculate what the tension of the string is. Let us say it is alpha. 4) Set the desired pitch. 5) Set alpha to te tension field. 6) Calculate the needed diameter. And there you are... :-) All the best Arto To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
