Greetings Herbert and list: I tie knots, try to catch fish, and pluck gut. Personally, I don't think a leader would be worth the effort. To be useful, the leader would need to nearly fill the space from peg to nut. You couldn't keep any reserve of string wrapped on or coiled beyond peg to slide down to the vibrating length if there is ever any breakage or fraying; each broken string would need complete replacement with a series of rather complicated knots if you intend to maintain the leader.
Depending, some fishing "leaders" are actually designed to stretch more than modern low-stretch lines and thus absorb the shock of a fish strike without breaking or pulling the hook from a fish's mouth. I would expect monofilament or fluorocarbon leader material to stretch more than typical gut strings. If you still want to look into this, rather than materials advertised as leader, consider modern "braided" or "fusion" lines. Those tend to have no appreciable stretch. There are a fair number of excellent knots for joining fishing lines (or lines to leaders) of different materials or diameters. The problem I envision with most of those knots is that they were devised around rather limply flexible fishing lines and require each line to make a series of twists around the other. Gut is relatively stiff and thus not prone to easily making many twists around anything as fine as fishing line. One exception is the nail knot. In tying it, you could keep the gut straight and wrap line around it, but it is rather involved. You could also tie a small double surgeon's loop in each gut and line and thread one through the other to interlock, but that would likely occupy more length and the line may cut through the gut after being to tension for a relatively short time. I still think minimizing friction over nut is your best bet. In addition to lubricating nut slots with graphite, wrap pegs in an effort to minimize the angle of the string coming off the nut. If you do experiment with string leaders, please keep us posted on your results. Luck, Eugene ----- Original Message ----- From: howard posner <[email protected]> Date: Monday, January 2, 2012 2:03 am Subject: [LUTE] Re: Non-stretchy pegbox leaders. To: lute List <[email protected]> > > On Jan 1, 2012, at 10:49 PM, Herbert Ward wrote: > > > > Stretching of strings between the nut and the peg is causing > > me severe difficulty in tuning -- I can turn the peg > > 90 or 120 degrees with no response in the pitch. > > > > Lubricating the nut is of course a possibility. > > A necessity, if you can really give the peg more than a quarter > turn with no result. Take a pencil and draw lines in the grooves > until you've put a layer of graphite down in the groove. > > > But I'd also like to try replacing the portion of the string > > between nut and peg with a leader of some material which > > (a) does not stretch, > > (b) can be tied securely and easily to the string, > > (c) will not slip on the peg, > > (d) will not damage anything, > > (e) is strong enough, and > > (f) is readily available. > > > > Does anyone have experience in this? > > Go to your local fishing supply shop, talk to someone who is not > a fish, and ask for leader. That's the stuff you > want. If your knot-tying skills are halfway decent (i.e. > better than mine) you should be able to join it securely to your > string. Having the knot resting on the nut will > solve all your sticking problems, but likely leave you with not > enough string to retie the knot if it comes undone. > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
