Dear Lutenists
You probably all know by now, that Mimmo Peruffo of Aquila has acquired
an
extrudor which has allowed him to develop his new NNG compound much closer to
his own strong, fairly stiff, gut treble strings, which are themselves based on
his understanding and research into how historic trebles might have felt under
the finger.
Mimmo is thus in a position to plough some of his historic gut string knowledge
back into his synthetic string making; and has now begun experimenting with a
prototype loaded NNG string, close to his loaded Venice gut basses, and also
preparing to research a more flexible synthetic Meanes closer to the properties
of his Venices.
As Charles Besnainou, string specialist at the CNRS pointed out to me, this is
a
historic moment, as it may be the first time we have synthetic musical string
types specifically designed and produced by a musical string maker who is
actually interested in musicians, rather than as a by-product of the synthetic
string industry, which is more interested in fishermen and tennis players.
Prototype Tungsten loaded NNG bass:
On returning to Paris, and my computer, I found the message from Mimmo
relating that he was experimenting with a new loaded NNG string that used
tungsten loading; but that this string type can work for 4th 5th and 6th course
on a Renaissance lute.
Of course, I immediately wondered why MP was only talking of basses on a six
course lute. Since Tungsten is twice as heavy as copper, I wondered why he
could
not simply "chuck" more Tungsten in to the mix and come up with a perfect C-11
loaded bass.
I communicated all this to Mimmo (showing my complete ignorance of plastics and
extrudors), but he agreed to Skype me so that I could both see and hear the
prototype string, and discuss these issues.
Hearing and seeing a string through Skype is not the ideal way of judging its
qualities; nor is it ideal for communicating about such a complex topic. The
line froze on several occasions, probably leading Mimmo to believe I was not
understanding his English, wheras, in point of fact, he communicates his
enthusiasm and his string ideas rather well.
The Protype Tungsten Loaded NNG's qualities:
Apparently, at present the protoype tungsten loaded string is graphite
coloured (the colour of Tungsten?), but this I could not tell from Skype. Mimmo
would prefer to colour it slightly more red.
The loaded string was paired up with a wirewound on the 7th course of a large
Baroque lute and tuned to Renaissance F-7 (I am not sure at what diapason). So
Mimmo seems to have already achieved the equivalent of a Renaissance 7th
course.
Through Skype, I was only in a position to compare the relative sound of these
two strings, as they were both filtred by mics, computers and speakers. I think
I can nevertheless come to a few conclusions.
The NNG loaded string has the typical sustain and singing quality of gut loaded
strings, but with less sustain than the paired wirewound (and of course this is
exactly what we would want). When Mmmo damped the neighbouring wirewound, I
could hear that the loaded string was warmer and less metallic than the
wirewound (without the damping, some sympathetic resonance made it brighter,
but
that was only to be expected).
It was extremely interesting to hear that Mimmo's NNG Loaded string kept its
tonal qualities and sustain when it was lowered to the frequency of a D-7 (it
just lost a little in intensity). This would, I think, imply that the string
is
very true and the loading homogenous.
MP however, would like to make the string slightly stiffer, and to raise the
loading percentage, so as to be able to achieve an easilly controllable bass
string that can go down to C-11. He is fairly confident that he can achieve
this, but he already had two very difficult problems to resolve when making
this
F-7 bass string (see below).
Very surprising was the degree of flexibility of the new string. I would say
that it is as flexible as Charles Besnainou's spring strings, which have 20%
stretch. The difference is that Charles achieves this by the spring structure
of
a complex string, while Mimmo has achieved it directly through the plastic
compound's structure.
This could lead to an ultra low impedance string, having both the elasticity of
ChB's spring strings, and the thinness of Mimmo's gut loaded strings, thus
having lower impedance, and better harmonicity than either, but not at the
expense of the other voices (as with wirewounds) as they would also be able to
better resonate in this low impedance environment, giving better sustain to all
the vocies.
Could this ultra low impedence string achieve the French Luthenists ideal
sound?
An NNG Loaded bass may have more sustain than ever achieved by a historic
(non-demifilé) gut string, but we should, perhaps, remember the ideal the
French
luthenists were attempting to achieve, when, according to Anthony Bailes, they
sought out antique Italian lutes:
"The last, and most important point is that notes on such instruments have more
sustain coupled with a more gradual and even decay to the sound. This is
particularly important as it can give the impression that a note sounds on
longer than it actually does." (Lute News 85, Avril 2008)
Perhaps this new loaded bass will bring us closer to that ideal, without
resorting to removing antique lutes from our museums.
(of course we should be careful not to overgeneralize such arguments which
could
bring some to speculate that these same French luthenists, might have adopted
modern wirewounds, had they been available. Demi-filé did exist, but it does
not
seem that they were generally adopted by French luthenists).
Problems that needed to be resolved:
1) Standard extrudors have not been developed to push heavy metal laden
polymers through the eye of the extrudor nozzle, and Mimmo had breaking bolts
and nozzles due to high pressures, with some risk entailed;
2) MP found that adding a loading agent to a plastic compound worked rather
differently from loading gut. Gut keeps its basic qualities (flexibility etc)
during the loading process; while the loading of plastic actually changes its
elasticity and makes the resulting string stiffer.
This of course is not what you want for a bass string, it should be more
flexible, if anything, to attain equivalent harmonicity to a thinner string.
Furthermore, achieiving a homogenous mix was not so easy as expected.
Solving (1) meant having alterations made to the nozzles and their bolts; and I
hope that Mimmo has minimised any risks, when he further raises the loading
compound.
Solving (2) is a more difficult issue, implying use of very recent theories
about the complex flow of polymer systems, based on a new inter-discipline
using
"Rheology Principles" at the boundaries of Chemistry, Physics, Material
sciences, Mechanics and Mathematics. All which is quite beyond my
understanding,
but hopefully well understood by Mimmo (but see ChB's remarks below).
In fact, Mimmo found he needed to raise the flexibity of NNG by adding a
specific plastic ("flexing" agent) to the compound, so as to counteract the
stiffening due to the loading process. He will now need to exactly control the
ammount of the flexing agent added, so as to achieve a slightly stiffer string,
while also needing to increase the percentage of the loading agent. In the case
of the lower basses this loading agent will need to be copper, I think,
possibly, because of the high price of Tungsten, but perhaps copper is more
suitable, anyway.
(ChB tells me that if clever dosing of ingredients can help achieve particular
string qualities, the real art in extruding synthetic strings lies in the
drawing-techniques. Charles says the filament is amorphous (the mollecules are
not structured) at the extrudor nozzle. It is the drawing technique that aligns
mollecules and determines theier structure, giving the string's flexibility,
elasticity, and resistence to charge.
Charles says that if Mimmo has mastered this art, he takes off his hat to him.)
MP is hoping to be able to make more tests in March of this year, so we are
still talking very much of a prototype bass string. Nevertheless, he does hope
soon to be able to offer a replacement for synthetic wirewounds close to his
ideal of the "historic" loaded bass strings.
Developing the three Mace string types in NNG sythetics:
Those who know Mimmo will not be surprised that as soon as he had
discovered
a new "flexing" agent to add to the NNG compound to compensate for stiffening
due to the loading agent, he immediately thought of using this to make a
synthetic NNG equivalent to his flexible Venice Meanes.
Thus he would have his interpretation of the three string types of which Mace
speaks, but this time in synthetics: Stiff NNG for Trebles; Flexible NNG with
specific "flexing" ingredient for Meanes; and Flexible NNG with specific
"flexing" ingredient + Tungsten or Copper loading agent for Basses.
For the first time then we should have a homogonous quality across voices that
has only ever been attained by gut. Not only would this be due to the basic NNG
composition present in all voices, but the different degree of flexing and
loading will compensate for the usual increase in harmonicity due to the
auto-damping of higher frequency components by thicker strings, so that all
voices should sing together (with better sympathetic behaviour): while the
small
differences, may help to separate the voices, they should blend together like
the voices of a choir.
Higher tension Meane Octaves:
It will at last be possible to follow Mace's advice, and achieve an even
better blend of Basses and Meanes, by using NNG Meanes strings for the thicker
7c to 11c octaves.
"Then out of your Venice-Catlins, for your 4ths, 5ths, and most of your other
octaves."
http://www.luteshop.co.uk/stringsmace.htm
Closer to the ideal (if not the letter) of historic strings?
I do not know whether it will be possible to achieve quite the "rich and
alive" sound texture of gut, which comes, as D.v.O. rightly says, from its
natural irregularity (lute news No 96 p19-18), or the micro-dynamics of a gut
string, which "will respond immediately when plucked", with "a quick attack".
and a "smaller, but more refined dynamical range than modern strings."
So although all-NNG may give similar sustain to all-gut, it may not seduce many
gut users who like David, consider gut, the material used by the old ones, and
so fundamental to the understanding of their music: "These two factors, attack
and sustain, will influence (..) musical tempo (... and) my articulation".
However, if NNG brings lutenists even a little closer to the ideal (if not the
letter) of historic strings, it should bring them just "a litrtle closer to the
sound and music of bygone ages".
Will we see POD once more go "wireless":
Personally, (just as David says) I am willing to sacrifice a little
trueness for the warmer, more interesting, texture, microdynamics, and
homogenous sound of all gut stringing; but how wonderful, if the likes of POD
could once more be heard "wireless", as he was in some pieces, with all gut
stringing, in his superb recording, "Tablatures de Levt" AS76.
Yes, I might prefer him to play all-gut, but realistically, all-NNG is the best
we can hope for.
Pay back time for NG?
As you will know Mimmo has made deep historic research (see his web pages)
along with thousands of experiments on historic gut stringing, and some of this
must have been financed by sales of NG.
Now, with his extrudor, Mimmo can use this knowledge to near his historic
ideals
with NNG synthetics. Of course they will not be historic strings, but they
should be closer in terms of sound colour and texture to Mimmo's gut ideal,
than
any previous synthetic.
In some ways, they may surpass gut strings: being more true, with better
sustain, and easier to use at lower tension
Can we have the best of both worlds?
I feel almost certain that Mimmo will eventually plough this new knowledge,
acquired working with synthetics, back into improved gut stringing.
Could these strings be temporary replacements for gut users, when in
particularly difficult playing conditions?
No, I don't think that is possible. The more flexible Meanes and Loaded strings
would need quite a time to settle; but a player could either have a lute
specifically strung in synthetics for such conditions, or string a lute, well
in
advance, for a tour in which conditions are unpredictable.
Gut users may be able to better mix these synthetics with gut from a tonal
point
of view; although, you should bear in mind that gut and synthetics do not
necessarilly behave similarly in humid conditions, which can lead to strings
going out of tune in different directions.
I can see some gut users only using NNG trebles (to save on breakage), and
others only using NNG loaded basses (to save on the cost of expensive gut
loaded
basses). However, the ideal, is surely to use all synthetics or all gut; and my
preference for now does remain all gut.
Best time to make a new string?
Amusingly, the last time Mimmo Skyped me about the birth of a new a
loaded
string was around Christmas or the New Year a few years back. It was when he
had
developed his new Venice loaded gut basses; now it is almost the same time of
year, and a new synthetics loaded string is born! This is of course a romantic
view of things, but which I don't feel like completely dismissing.
Mimmo is a something of an alchemist (the Bernard Palissy of the string making
world), yet I doubt that he waits for the Winter solstice before beginning, and
then bringing his experiments to fruition, at the New Year.
More mundanely, Mimmo uses his free time for research and experiments; and
the Christmas holiday period is simply one of his main chances for
experimentation in his rare spare time.
I am personally grateful to Mimmo both for his continued research, and for
letting me glimpse some of his reasoning and the purpose behind his experiments.
Please do be patient, however. My recent discussion of NNG caused some
frustration, as some impatient hopeful NG users were unhappy not to be quickly
gratified with NNG.
Please note this is the beginning of an experiment with a protoype string. The
actual launch date depends on many factors, and could be some time off.
I know this may be frustrating for someone, hoping to string a new lute, who at
present may neither be able to find a Venice loaded gut bass, nor the new
loaded
NNG, for which the gut loaded string making has been temporarilly halted.
Regards
Anthony
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