Dear Anthony, and allI was one of these two french luthenists.In fact
Titanium nylon trebles is my best solution to have a great tensile strengh
and an easy to handle diameter, so a lower density is the most important
thing. My aim is to play on my "classical" archlute by Gyorgy Lorinczi
according with my personal choice of a 67 cm string lenght in Ensemble Music
at modern pitch A =440Hz with the first course doubled.A very good surprise
is the smootheness of the contact and an easier expressivity compared with
Perlon or Nylon.Nylgut and gut would breakCarbon would be too thin.Please
Excuse my ...English Original message:[LUTE] Re: Carbon strings + Titanium
Nylon?Anthony HindTue, 05 Oct 2010 06:26:03 -0700Dear Ed and All
For the reason you state below :
%
> The density of carbon is so much
> more than gut, therefore a smaller size is appropriate, around a 0.38
> or so. Because of the need for a smaller diameter, the sound is
> certainly more sharp sounding.
>
> ed
%
two lutenists on the French list, who have adopted synthetic strings
for their stability, (rather than just for their low cost), and who are
ready to experiment to achieve the sound they are looking for, have
adopted very low density Titanium Nylon fishing lines for their top
strings, which they claim give a thicker, and therefore, sweeter warmer
sounding top string for the same tension, compared to high density KF
carbon (which they use for their Meanes) or even compared to slightly
higher density nylon.
%
They liked the sound of the old nylgut (with its density close to gut),
but claimed that it tended to break too easilly (which presumably has
been resolved with the latest version)..
%
In fact, they were looking for a sound similar to that which is
achieved with titanium nylon guitar strings, but these do not exist in
diameters suitable for the lute.
It would seem that such a string can be found in a suitable diameter
(0,35 to 0,50) in fishing line, under the name, Nylon Powerline
Titanium; but there is also Asari Falcon titanium G2, which might be
suitable.
(for those interested these are special fishing lines for surf casting)
%
FranAS:ois Pizette gave the following comparative table of densities
(which I have not checked out):
%
titanium nylon :1.04
nylon: 1.12
perlon: 1.22
nylgut: 1.3
gut: 1.36
KF pvf: 1.81
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