Seven years is minimum. I have a tin peanut brittle box with old and newish gut strings- used & unused- going back to the late 1970's. The Ancient Gutpile- authentic gut strings that the old (and aging) lute players used to use way back in the 20th century.
>The way to go is to go all the way. Live with it, love it, hate it, >despair at it, fall utterly in love with it and vow never to use it >again, ever. All at the same time. And not for a day or a month. Seven >years would be nice, but at least give yourself a chance. And keep >your old strings, you might want to go back. > >David - been there, done that, still no answers > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
