Thanks Ariel, Your message was very instructive. I strongly believe that what makes a person a lutenist is not the type of string he uses, it is rather his knowledge of lute technique, control of his sound production and good taste. I remember Eugene Ferre playing on an all carbon set and his sound was excellent, not to mention his great playing. I personally have the impression that nylgut is not very projective and has a poor sustain, although it feels good under the fingers. The first and the second courses might work fine.
Regards. I'll email Paul O'Dette and Hoppy Smith right away and tell them that, so > they can finally start playing the lute and not the funny toy they've been > using for ages. I'll forward the info to Eug=E8ne Ferre, who's also quite > naive and seem to be very bad informed. > > > Bruno, > > We've been here before. > > Nylgut are more flexible in terms of what you can do with them. They're > reasonable stable, and last quite a lot. For my taste, the best synthetic > option. > Carbon are difficult to deal with for people with oversensitive skin, but > their sound can be very interesting. > It is always difficult to be conclusive, as some people make an excellent > sound with every type of string, and some other would blame the string and > wouldn't question themselves. > There're cases of people satisfied with a mediocre and poor sound claming > how good they and their strings are, but I wouldn't worry about them. > As carbon and nylgut are affordable, try both, play them for a while, and > you will make your choice. > While it is true that different strings feel different and of course sound > different, it is mostly the plucking technique what defines your sound > quality. > Working on tone production is the answer. Then you can make your choice. I > guess you know all this. > Some player will say that there's a difference in developing a sound for > gut > or for synthetic, but this is not fully correct. > I've used both, and they both require serious and constant training. > There're no different techniques for one and the other. Hear someone like > O'Dette playing a gut strung instrument and then a synthetic one. Leaving > apart the taste, there will be no difference in the technique used. > > For a 6 course (or even a 8 course) lute or vihuela I'd choose gut > basses, > or at least try to avoid overspun strings, but again I wouldn't claim > that's > the only option to make things work properly. > You can always train your fingers so they do exactly what you want to > hear. > > Ariel. > > > > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
