Buzz on the 4th course. I have found the answer to my question about the buzz on the 4th course at http://www.aquilacorde.com/faqi.htm
The question Why should two lowish twist strings on the 4th in unison buzz when fretted or not, while two very hightwist, and flexible Venice strings not do so? Possible answers, I put forward 1) The old diagrams of bad strings show us that the harmonic behaviour of a string is just as important as is the fundamental. Might it not be true that treble twist (Pistoy) and double twist, (Venice) tend to have better and more regular behaviour at that harmonic level, than do lower twist strings (stiffer strings) and that this might afford an explanation of why a pair of stiffish harmonically false strings might beat together, while the truer Venice do not? Or 2) Could the elasticity of the more flexible string also cause it to become effectively thinner than the stiffer string when it comes up to pitch? The answer in fact appears to be (2) "Because of its nature a Venice string stretches noticeably more than a regular high twist string, which leads, under equal stress, to a somewhat thinner diameter. Hence the necessity to use a thicker starting diameter: under working stress it will settle to a diameter similar to that of a regular string's and will eventually lead to the same working tension. In practice the correct diameter of an equivalent Venice string is obtained by multiplying the plain high twist string diameter by 1.10. " But this also seems to mean I should have used a thicker Venice string, which would probably have lead to the buzz remaining. Regards Anthony To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
