Anthony. That is good news, ameliorating the stiffness of the same material for a smooth transition to courses 5, 6, and maybe 7 as well? I eliminated wirewounds from my own lutes years ago; not for any purist/snob/HIP reasons but just because I could not abide them, although I would periodically try for convenience, economy, stability, etc. But they would always come off, sooner or later. At this time I do have one, single overspun on one of my instruments, a solid silver wound/gut core light tension 5th string G for bass viol that is doing duty as the 13 course fundamental AA on my Baroque lute. Transitions well to the 1st generation Peruffo loaded gut 12th fundamental.
The latest generation of Mimmo's loaded gut basses (type C, I think) are unavailable. I really hope he can come up with loaded new nylgut and resume production of the loaded gut, because they really are the best in my opinion. I can only use the alternatives in very limited specific instances: KF(G) for mid bass range, and Dan Larson's Gimps and Pistoys (for lower than 6th course) seem to work best for me only on the Larson lute 8 course lute. Sort of cool- magical but logical, that his strings match his lutes for best response. For diapasons on archlutes, I really think the KFG is a sort of magic bullet. Very happy with them on my small archlute. Don't crave or need anything else at this time. Not one of my students has ever wanted to continue using wirewounds after hearing and trying my instruments, although sometimes they have to for the usual reasons. As for Benjamin's high tensions (would love to know the specifics) I have gone back to relatively higher tension on my Baroque lute after playing with Toyohiko Satoh's suggested ultra low tension. Different lutes, different standards of performance & response, different strokes, different folks. I imagine there was not much more uniformity in the old days as now. The higher tension basses (midrange & trebles at "Larson medium") stay in tune better, have more punch, less slap-happy, and the lute doesn't seem to mind. Regards, Dan On Nov 11, 2011, at 7:27 AM, Anthony Hind wrote: > Dear Daniel and Ernesto > As I told the list a while back, after making a stiffer new > Nylgut, Mimmo (in his rare spare time) is working on a more flexible > (slightly elastic) version for thicker strings. There is already > excellent feedback for some prototypes. These would be useable on 5 and > 6 course and possibly 4th (presumably having characteristics close to a > flexible Venice) but a slightly different variant would be good for > Theorbo. > Mimmo is still working on a loaded version of this elastic NG, which > could mean that we may, hopefully, hear less wirewounds on lutes in the > near future. > Unfortunately, meanwhile, I have the impression that loaded gut strings > have remained unavailable. > Benjamin Narvey's latest baroque lute concert here in Paris testified > to the superb harmonicity of these loaded Venices which, through their > ultra low impedance, can allow a skillfull luthenist to achieve a rare > and wonderful singing cohesion between bass and mid lines (in spite of > Benjamin's fairly high bass string tension). > A truly superb sound quality and performance achieved again by > Benjamin! > Regards > Anthony > __________________________________________________________________ > > De : Daniel Winheld <[email protected]> > A : "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > Ernesto- > Good point- I have been wanting to get feedback on the New Nylgut; they > have been out for over a year now & I have had mostly good results with > them and would like other's opinions. On my tenor vihuela they have > really enhanced the overall sound, albeit not quite as purely beautiful > as gut. The New Nygut works best on this vihuela (Chambure copy by > Harris & Barber) down to the 4th course; but it is inferior to the .95 > KFG unison 5th course and out of the question for the 6th, where like > Martin Shepherd I also prefer the KFG. > On my Baroque lute (an old Robert Lundberg model, needs all the help it > can get) I am not completely sold yet, but I will be keeping them on > for a while. New Nylgut is fine right down to & including the 5th > course, then the KFG starting at the 6th. My 6 course & 8 course > completely gut except for the 1st on the 8 course, and it transitions > to the gut courses better than the other synthetics I have used in the > past. > Dan > On Nov 9, 2011, at 9:20 AM, [1][email protected] wrote: >> Have you tried the New Nylgut from Aquila? >> Lutenists here in Brazil love them! To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
