Dear Theo
Just recently on the French Lute list, Carlos Gonzales, president of the Sp
anish Vihuela society, and lutemaker, has sopoken highly of these strings vihuel
a (President Carlos Gonzales)spoke about this;
See the thread here,
$
Re: [Le_luth] Cordes vihuela - demande `a Carlos
$
[1]http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Le_luth/message/12239
$
has said that for the last few years he has been using these Savarez KF
strings made specially for harps, as basses for lutes baroque guitars
and vihuelas. He confirms that they are made up of thinner strands
glued together, and that he finds them "very balanced, as sweet as the
human voice". He admits that you need to get used to their thickness,
but it remains thinner than pure gut types.
He gives an example of the stringing he uses on a lute or 7c Vihuela :
g' KFN33 - d' KFN43 - a KFN52 - f KFN66-33 - c KFN84 - 43,5 - G KFN 112
- 57 - F KFN126 - 62.
He goes on to say that his wife has used them for some years, and that
in his experience, it is hard to come back to wirewounds after using
them. Although, he says he has heard that some players wax their wire
wounds to make them less bright.
$
It seems that at the next [2]Festival de Musica Antigua at Gijon, the
topic of strings will be on the agenda, and he hopes that it will be
possible to compare these harp strings, with Charles Besnainou's spring
strings (Charles is invited to this meeting), and Mimmo Peruffo's
loaded strings. Carlos hopes to make acoustic analyses of these
differents string types, in his sound laboratory.
$
Please note that I am only reporting Carlos's words, and not endorsing
them, as I have never heard these strings. I have heard both Charles
Besnainou's ultra low impedance spring strings, and myself use low
impedance loaded strings, which I find excellent, when used in the
right combination of strings (see the recent loaded string thread).
Charles' spring strings can either be made of carbon or of gut, but I
have only heard the gut strings on bowed instruments. I did hear his
carbon springs on his lutes: I would say that they are very free and
open, with excellent high frequency content (low impedance), but they
also did add a plasticky sound to the overall sound-mix; which was not
at all the case with the bowed gut spring strings. I wonder to what
extent the KF harps stirings add that plasticky quality, or whether the
fact that they are composites gets round the bell like sound of most
carbon strings.
$
Stephen Gottlieb who is reputed for using only gut basses on his lutes
(mainly those of George Stoppani), mentionned that he had tried some
carbon KF basses, which he had had to cut down to get through the
bridge holes; but he said they were rather good. I imagine these could
be the same strings.
Regards
Anthony
epuis quelques annees j'utilise des cordes Savarez KF conc,ues pour les
harpes "carbone file carbone". En fait se sont les cordes KF `a partir
du diametre 0,95, au lieu d'etre du monofilament elles se presentent
sous la forme d'un monofilament avec des tres fins brins colles. Je les
utilise pour les bourdons et on peut corder une vihuela, une guitare
baroque ou un luth sept choeurs sans cordes filees metal. Je trouve le
son tres equilibre et les basses douces comme des voix humaines. Il
faut s'y habituer aux grosses diametres , meme si en boyau les graves
seraient encore plus grosses.
Un exemple de cordage pour luth ou vihuela `a 7 choeurs: g' KFN33 - d'
KFN43 - a KFN52 - f KFN66-33 - c KFN84 - 43,5 - G KFN 112 - 57 - F
KFN126 - 62.
Mon epouse Mabel les utilise depuis des annees, et il faut dire
qu'apres on a du mal `a revenir aux cordes filees metal. J'ai entendu
dire que certains enduisent de cire les cordes filees pour les rendre
plus mates, mais je n'ai jamais essaye.
Cela dit on est toujours `a la recherche d'autres solutions, comme les
cordes spiralees de Charles Besnainou ou les cordes chargees en metal
de Mimmo Peruffo. C'est pour c,a que j'aimerais qu'ils nous parlent de
leurs experiences `a Gijon et qu'on puisse les y analyser dans
l'atelier d'acoustique.
Amities
Carlos
I was recently at a harp convention (wife is a harpist), and a harp repairman
told me about a new advance in strings from Savarez,
that they have produced a nylon string (NOT carbon fibre, nor other synthetic)
that has fibres of some sort imbedded within,
The fibres apparently lend both strength and warmth, to sound and feel more
like gut.
I checked the Savarez website but the site has scant information (at least in
the english site).
Does anyone know more about these strings, or is this just rumor/bad
information?
cheers, trj
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References
1. http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Le_luth/message/12239
2. http://www.musicaantiguagijon.com/
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
