I think my frets are ok :) Re: Nylgut I'm speaking of paired strings.
What I hear, and my measurements confirm (NB in a relatively small sample, say fiftty-sixty strings), is that the nylgut pairs drift more --but more irregularly-- in tuning than do other strings; the pair then as a combined note becomes out of tune. With a single string you can fudge the frets a bit.... You can twist your finger to adjust the pitch between the strings a bit. Not as bad as it sounds, I pull the strings up on the third course to get the fifth in tune on a low second fret. And when I try a lute in nylgut, I hear the same problem. But I bet some people have strings that work fine. Here's the thing, just check it for yourself, tune the second course perfectly in unison and then start at say the eighth fret and see if it drifts. If it does not, then it does not, and that is that. If you have a strobe tuner (not a korg) you can dampen one of the paired string and play each note separately to see if they are the same pitch. Normally, they will be slightly different with any string material, some strings drift more than others. If they drift a lot, it will show up on a korg as well. Along those lines, perhaps I need to check a wider variety of samples. I've used a bunch, though. For me, it is too much.You can of course tune the unisons slightly out of tune to compensate, but to my ear it sounds out of tune. If you have a pair that does not drift, or if the tuning does not bother you, than that is really the end of the story. Tuning has a degree of psycological subjectivity. If you listen to session tapes, the producer will say, sometimes that's flat, and, later, you will hear it as sharp. and notes way out of tune are not called at all. If a note is always out of tune, you get used to it as well. You can also check the drift vs the tension with a monochord--I have one with a kilogram scale (OK newton-kilogram) that Mel Wong made for me that will check the tension as well, but who has the time? Besides, you would need a dichord (or a tricorder) to really check it. The tensiometer is really handy for mixing and matching strings. Everyone has a different tolerance for tuning, no strings to my ear are perfectly in tune. But to me, gut is more in tune than nylgut, makes better ornaments and sounds better as well. But that is really a question of taste, some people really like the nylgut, and perhaps there is some trick to the tuning I can't figger, or you just buy a dozen to get a good match. Perhaps the batches vary as well, certainly that's true for the carbon strings. I understand that durability is an issue, and that there is an immediacy factor in one's ephermal, expensive string that makes it different than wishing da Vinci had used titanium paint. However, I have had gut strings that lasted for over a year on the second, third and fourth courses. After a while, they get notches underneath where the frets are. All strings drift a bit. dt At 03:55 AM 8/17/2007, you wrote: > > to my ear Nylgut is out of tune above > > the 4th fret, but some find it acceptable. > >That probably has more to do with your fret placement than the string >material. One probably does need some fret placement adjustment to match >string material - I would thing a very small adjustment between the >materials used for lute strings. > >-- >http://DoctorOakroot.com - Rough-edged songs on homemade GIT-tars. > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
