Arto- Some instruments can tolerate, and will respond to synthetics better than others; I am particularly lucky with my archlute- nylon 1st & 2nd, carbon for 3, 4, and 5; and almost tolerable copper overspun basses. low tension (I follow Toyohiko Satoh's recommendations) and careful touch are particularly important; less leeway for sloppy technique than with good gut.
I have ended my 11 year love affair with nylgut. Ed Martin and dt are right, they are Satan's strings- two courses of which are still polluting my 6-course. My other instruments are in gut except for the archlute- Every lute player should have a bad guitar for fun & games. Mine is a 7 string, steel-string flat top acoustic; purchased on a whim while waiting delivery of my "Chambure" vihuela from Barber & Harris back in 2002. It cost about half the price of the Kingham case for the vihuela. In spite of a 64.5 cm sl I have it right up to G, a=440; average string tension about 10 kg. per string. That's somewhat on the light side for modern steel-string guitars. Plain steel first four, bottom three overspun (7th string at low D)- Thomastik-Infeld. Sounds far, far better than it has any right to sound. ET frets and some unnecessary mother of pearl are the only real drawbacks. It certainly doesn't sound like a lute whether good or bad, maybe it sounds like a bad Orpharion- or a really good one. Dan >Some synthetic strings sound better than others. The nylgut to my ear >has a lot of out of tune harmonics, so gut to me sounds much better >than nylgut. >But nylgut is so convenient! >High quality nylon and some carbon strings can sound good, but there >are a lot of junky synthetics in carbon and nylon as well. > >Of course, this is personal preference, some ppl like nylgut, and so on. >You can't go wrong with good quality gut strings of course, and bad >gut strings sound truly dreadful. >As a former tuner, I can't tolerate out of tune partials easily, but >then again the effect is greater on certain lutes. Many people have >no problem with the harmonics--we all hear differently in subtle ways. > >Sounding like a bad guitar may not be bad--do you want the lute to >sound like a good guitar? > >Lastly, perhaps your recording device cannot handle the very fast >moving harmonics of the lute, and you need a faster microphone/preamp combo. >dt > > > >At 01:03 PM 6/2/2010, you wrote: >>Dear lutenists, >> >>there is a problem - to me at least: >> >>- Some time ago a certain person commented one of my "accords nouveaux" >>"y-tubings" by words: "it sounds like a bad guitar". I was playing a >>10-courser stringed by synthetics. >> >>- Since last December I have been playing an 11-courser stringed by gut. In >>the beginning I had very harsh sound. Perhaps getting better? Not much. Who >>knows? But REALLY enjoyable touch and feel! >> >>- Now the 11-courser is in "garage"; some bar(-s) is(are) loose. Eagerly >>waiting to get it back... >> >>- The problem: My lutes stringed by synthetic strings sound also to me - >>especially when recorded! - "like a bad guitar". >> >>Is it really so, or did I just miss the touch to synthetics? >> >>worried, >> > > >> >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Rachel Winheld 820 Colusa Avenue Berkeley, CA 94707 [email protected] Tel 510.526.0242 Cell 510.915.4276
