Fran=E7ois Pizette on the French list is reporting that on his archlute, the low density of titanium nylon strings allows a larger diameter on the treble course (larger than KF, for example) of a lute strung at least partly in synthetics ; and that this gives a warmer tone, because of the greater contact with the fingers. He would be using KF up to the 3rd course, and then titanium nylon on the 2c and 1c. Previously, he has also tried Perlon, but he says, this is more metallic.
Has anyone, here, used these strings? I must admit, I had never heard of them, but I have been concentrating on gut. He also mentions in passing Amnesia, a type of string, I have either never heard of, or instantly forgotten. He gives the relative density of various strings as follows: gut 1.36 nylon: 1.12 KF pvf:1.81 nylgut:1.3 amnesia:0,95 perlon:1.22 titaniumHT:1.04 Regards Anthony PS The other day, I heard some special CNRS synthetic strings made by Charles Besnainou (ex of Savarez, I think) on a bass lute by Michael Lowe belonging to Remi Cassaigne. Unfortuantely, I do not know this sort of lute (which seemed enormous), to be able to judge the sound. He reported that, before they are put on the lute, these strings are about 9" long. They must be extremely elastic, and it is probably rather difficult to predict their pulling power. Regards Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
