Hello Ed
You are no doubt right, as Venice are supposed to be double
direction twist (not triple); but in their "blurb" they claim they
are the most flexible string on the market, as they explain, here:
"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."http://www.aquilacorde.com/catalogo4.htm
However, I am not sure I understand the physics of what you tell me,
"stiffness makes the vibrating portion of the string in effect
shorter, therefore pitch problems can occur. This is why the Pistoy
works the best, due to its flexibility." and also "That is why they
intonate so well, because the vibrating aspect of the string is from
the nut to the bridge, not in effect a shorter distance."
I thought all strings vibrate in a complex manner, from the nut to
the bridge, but also at multiples of this measure (half the string,
quarter of the string, etc).
Indeed, Aquila claim (see above) that Venice being very flexible
allow for rich high frequency harmonics to develop. "
Thus, I imagined that the stiffer the string, the less these
harmonics are allowed to develop.
I understood that was the same logic as explained by Martin Shepherd
in relation to low tension strings (ie the lower the tension of a
given string, the greater its flexibility and the richer its
harmonics). I imagined that reaching a certain critical stiffness the
string would almost only vibrate along its full length, with all the
in between harmonics damped out, and only the full length vibrating.
I am no specialist in physics, so I may well be using my imagination
too much.
Now, if a stiffer string is more likely to be untrue than a flexible
one, could that be due to the fact that the stiffness, and thickness
can never be homogenous, and so some parts of the string may more
freely be resonating, while at some other part of the string, the
harmonic is partly damped.
Thus we have the same string vibrating in different modes (as shown
in some old treatise on string choice), and as the pair might be
vibrating in quite a different pattern the buzz problem could occur.
This would be most problematic on the 4th, as these strings are
thicker and therefore closer than on the first or second. A flexible
string that has be twined from both ends might be less liable to show
this irregular harmonic pattern.
However, the point I was making was not that the Venice was more
flexible than the Pistoy. I was trying to understand why the very
stiff paired Kurschners on my 4th course were causing a buzz (I
changed them three times) while the paired Venice on the same course
had no such problem. I was assuming that the Kurschner were slightly
untrue in relation to each other (for the reason stated above), I
have no way of seeing whether a Larson Pistoy would behave even
better than a Venice, as they can't be made down to the size for the
4th course. They are great however, as diapasons on my Sixth, and in
the Gimped version on my 7th.
On the other hand, if the buzz were due to contact with the fret,
while this same explanation could hold, another plausible explanation
comes to mind. I suppose there is the possibility that when the
Venice come up to full tension (being more flexible or elastic) they
may, as a consequence, take on a slightly smaller diameter than the
Kurschner, when they reach the same tension. I suppose it could be
true that the stiffer the string, the less its diameter "shrinks" as
it reaches the desired pitch. If this is, at least plausible, then
perhaps this 'thinner' string's vibrations, are just missing the fret.
I have no way of finding out which, if any, of these "explanations"
might be right. However, a very niggling problem was got rid of in
the change over to Venice, which are very well worth trying on the
4th course, in my opinion.
Best regards
Anthony
Le 18 août 07 à 14:35, Edward Martin a écrit :
> Hi, Anthopny.
>
> The Pistoy is the most flexible string available. They are made
> using 3 strands of wet gut, and they are each triple twisted.
> Then, they are twisted together in the opposite direction, making
> for a very loose, flexible string. That is why they intonate so
> well, because the vibrating aspect of the string is from the nut to
> the bridge, not in effect a shorter distance.
>
> ed
>
>
>
>
>> Venice are possibly even more flexible than Pistoys, and
>> definitely far less stiff than the Kurschners, which I find
>> particularly stiff even for a low twist string.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Edward Martin
> 2817 East 2nd Street
> Duluth, Minnesota 55812
> e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> voice: (218) 728-1202
>
>
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
