I have a great deal of experience with gut, but not theorbo. David is very passionate about gut, as am I. I would trust his string prescription, as he has had a great deal of experience with theorbos with gut. I am sure he has "fine tuned" his stringing (pun intended).
ed At 12:54 PM 8/10/2011, David van Ooijen wrote: >David > >I play a S&S theorbo like yours: 76/140cm, build for me in 1988. >Current set-up is 6+8. First two strings re-entrant, tuned in a. >415/440 as required with the same set of strings. I've had all sorts >of tensions over the years, but this is what it is at the moment: >All-gut, obviously. >76cm >1 = a 0.62mm >2 = e 0.78mm >3 = b 0.58mm >4 = g 0.66mm >5 = d 0.88mm >6 = A 1.16mm >140mm >7 = G 0.74mm >8 = F 0.82mm >9 = E 0.86mm >10 = D 0.97mm >11 = C 1.09mm >12 = B1 1.14mm >13 = A1 1.28mm >14 = G1 1.44mm >(Or the nearest available diameter, of course.) >Strings 1 to 5 are plain gut by any maker. 6 is a bit of a bother, but >I'm reasonably happy with Aquila's loaded gut at the moment. >Strings 7 to 14 are Gamut Diapassons, the best I've played so far, but >fret gut will do if in trouble (still better than nylgut ;-). > >I used to play it with a much higher string tension, but have gone >down over the years: less punch and more resonance, less metallic >sound and more warmth. > >It would be nice to have the instrument in balance: top set in a >tension that is comparable to the diapassons. If you like the tension >of what you're having on the instrument now, just replace the top >seven strings. The carbon you can measure. There are lists around (or >ask this list) that translate carbon diameters to comparable gut >diameters. If you ever decide to change to a different tension, you'll >be able to reuse most of your diapassons by moving them up a place, >and just buy the missing one string. No need to replace good >diapasson, and some of these thick basses get better over time anyway. > >On a side-note. I've noticed string makers tend to advice rather high >string tensions. Better ask a player. I'm sure the string makers know >best at what tension their strings give optimum performance, but I >think players tend to give a more informed, and more varied!, answer >to the question of ideal string tension for actual playing. > >enjoy your new toy! > >David >-- >******************************* >David van Ooijen >davidvanooi...@gmail.com >www.davidvanooijen.nl >******************************* > > > > > > >On 10 August 2011 19:22, David Smith <d...@dolcesfogato.com> wrote: > > Greetings, > > > > I have a Barber and Harris Lesser French Theorbo with 14 strings (7x1 > > and 7x1) with lengths of 760mm and 1400mm. The 7 diapasons are gut but > > the other are carbon fiber and silver wrapped. I bought the instrument > > used and would like to convert to all gut. > > > > > > I have looked at Arto's string calculator and am stumped as to what I > > should use for the tension on the strings. The I am not sure what the > > current set of gut diapasons are either. > > > > > > So a couple of questions: > > > > 1. Should I replace all the strings in order to get the correct > > balance on the instrument? > > > > 2. What tension for the strings should I be looking for? > > > > 3. Is the best approach to just go to Aquila or Gamut and ask > > them to figure it out? > > > > > > I would appreciate any guidance I can get. I have read through some of > > the other discussions but have not come to enough understanding to know > > how to proceed. > > > > > > Thank you in advance. > > > > > > Regards > > > > David > > > > -- > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com voice: (218) 728-1202 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name http://www.myspace.com/edslute http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin
