Dear Martin
Good to hear from you again. I am interested in your positive
comments on the KF strings, although at present I will probably stay
with gut, nevertheless on a rainy day, as you say, a good alternative
could be very useful.
How well might these KF strings work on the 6th course? I see that
Jacob only seemed to be using them on the 5th, with gut below, and
nylgut above.
It is particularly interesting to me, in that my experiments with gut
strings recently, were also to do with the 5th course, which I feel
is a key string, that can be difficult to sort out, if you change to
unison which is implied in your remark about the KF, "I'm not
convinced it would necessarily be successful on a unison course" .
Obviously, like most gut users, I prefer gut basses because of the
more unified sound across all the strings, as opposed to gut tops and
wirewounds, and also because of the greater clarity when the higher
voices are not drowned by the basses (I know that using old copper-
wounds can go a fair distance in damping them down).
However, with a pair of Gamut Lyon, on my 5th course I still felt
felt that there was a mild tonal break at that course (rather dark in
comparison to the Base + octave below, and also to the smaller low
twist strings above). An octave string would give greater brightness
to the Lyons, and if I had adopted this (as you did with the KF) on
the 5th course I think the problem would disappear.
Also, when I say problem, it is relative. It is the most noticeable
when playing a scale across courses, and much less obvious in music
passages, but I felt it could still be heard.
I thought of using Lyons on the 4th as well as the 5th, to darken 4th
slightly and lessen the break between the two, but I quickly saw that
Lyons and Pistoys could not be made down to the size of my 4th courses.
Further searching, showed me that Venice by Aquila, which is a double
twist (similar in this to Gamut Pistoys) can be made down to 0,7, so
I thought that I might lessen the break, by darkening the 4th course
slightly with that. Then I thought that perhaps using Venice both on
the 5th and the 4th could be another step in the right direction.
In fact, I was quite surprised, the Venice are much brighter than the
Lyons, and there is almost no tonal break, at present, even when
playing a scale across the courses.
At first I thought, this should be completely positive. If people
choose gut basses for greater unity, then those that give even more
unity should surely be best.
However, I noticed that with the loss of the lyons, I have lost a
little bass thwack on the 5th (like a taut skin-covered drum). In
some simple rhythmic pieces (say, Wilson's Wile), it gave an
interesting onward pulse to the piece.
This could well mean that they would be better than the Venice with
octave strings. However, in a piece like The Countess of Pembroke's
Funerals, where certain "chords" can played broken (see Lindberg
<http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=BIS-CD-451>),
then the greater unity of the Venice strings gives a certain
improvement.
I notice that the Venice are very supple (not like the Lyons) and I
suppose this could be similar in effect to using low tension strings.
At a very high tension a string might have its harmonics dampened
simply through the greater stiffness this gives. Perhaps, a
relatively supple string at a given tension also allows more harmonic
development.
("The Venice strings possess a remarkable degree of elasticity and
pliability, superior to any strings currently on the market. This
means a surprisingly ready attack and good richness in upper
overtones >> Aquila).
What might your thoughts on that, Martin? It seems to join up with
your previous topic on low-tension stringing. Except that low tension
stringing might also leave the sound-board freer to reonate with
harmonics, and I don't think that would be the case with high double-
twist supple strings.
Sorry, this is going a little like an advert for Aquila Venice, but I
realise, as pointed out to me by David van Ooijen, that the sound of
strings can depend on the lute, their tension, where you pluck them
(rose, or bridge) and also the skill of the fingers that are plucking
them. Perhaps, some fingers could pluck more high frequency component
out of a Lyon string. Also, as I have already pointed out, a Lyon,
accompanied by an octave string could indeed be better than the
Venice, giving greater overall tonal stretch, than with a Venice
(rather as you imply for the KF strings). However, I can't be sure
about this, as I have not tried it.
As always, I would be very interested in you remarks
Best wishes
Anthony
Le 19 juin 07 =E0 14:39, Martin Shepherd a ecrit :
> Dear Anthony,
>
> As far as I know, the KF strings are made from PVF. How it is that
> they
> are less clear and have a less shiny surface I don't know. I just
> wish
> they made them in slightly smaller sizes - the thinnest is .95mm,
> supposedly the equivalent of a gut string of about 1.1mm, though I
> doubt
> they are quite that heavy as I find they work well for a 5th course
> on a
> 60cm lute. I first came across one of these on one of Jacob's lutes,
> and thought it was a gut string - it looked and felt exactly like a
> perfect, low-twist gut string. Even at this diameter, it is quite a
> stiff string, with very little peg movement resulting in a big
> change in
> pitch, and it takes a while to settle, but once settled in it works
> really well. I'm using it with an octave, of course, on 6c lute, and
> I'm not convinced it would necessarily be successful on a unison
> course,
> but it makes a very handy alternative for a gut string when you
> want to
> be "waterproof".
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Martin
>
> Anthony Hind wrote:
>
>> Several previous messages from synthetics users mention the advantage
>> of using carbon strings on the 4th and 5th course to avoid wire-
>> wounds. Nobody, in that discussion (i can recall) mentioned Savarez
>> KF. Some answers contrasted carbon and nylgut, others carbon and gut.
>> However, I notice that Jacob Heringman, who uses gut for recording,
>> says,"For touring and performing, as opposed to recording, I use
>> nylgut in the treble and mid-range, down to the fifth course (though
>> I'm experimenting with Savarez KF strings for the fifth course at the
>> moment), and the above-mentioned gut basses, with nylgut octaves."
>> http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/Heringman.html
>>
>> The KF might be an alternative then to carbon for the 5th also for
>> synthetic users (Savarez, in fact, claim the KF are closer in sound
>> and texture to gut), perhaps they have properties in between carbon
>> and nylgut, hopefully, being less slippery than carbon?
>>
>> I have heard people calling them carbon strings, but I think they may
>> be a fluor based product.
>> I have never, tried them myself, but they might be a serious but more
>> expensive alternative for the fifth course for someone using
>> synthetics, who did not want to use wire-wounds, and who does not
>> like carbon fishing line.
>> Personally, I have been comparing Aquila Venice and Gamut Lyons on my
>> 5th course, of which more, perhaps, later. Choices for 4th and 5th
>> strings do seem to be critical for gut users too.
>> Anthony
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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