Unless you want to be continually replacing your first string, you should either drop to a lower pitch standard (even a semitone will increase the lifespan quite significantly) or if that isn't an option (horror of horrors) use a synthetic (e.g. nylgut) string for your first. There's always the forlorn hope that somebody will start producing stronger gut, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Maybe one of us knows more than me about the process of giving gut an even diameter, but I have heard there are two options, one involving the abrasion of the 'rough' string, and the other using strings that have been very carefully hand-made with selected strips and don't need grinding of the string's surface to make it even. The latter type would be stronger, but I wouldn't know where to buy them. Bill From: David Smith <[email protected]> To: Lute List <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 19 January 2012, 6:25 Subject: [LUTE] String hairs I have a new lute that has gut strings on it. I have had it for about 3 days. The 1^st string has unraveled a single "hair" about the 7^th fret. In the past I have just cut these as short as possible but frequently the string breaks within a couple of weeks. Is there any better way to treat these "hairs"? I play with no nails and have been very careful so am somewhat surprised at this happening so quickly. Is this common with gut strings? Thanks for any words of wisdom. Regards David -- To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
