That's done if the nut grooves aren't perfectly smooth and the string stretches on the peg side of the nut, when tuning, then suddenly jumps to a higher pitch. The cord (usually polyester, which has very little stretch) won't stretch so much and reduces this effect.
When this is done, the lute usually has a long pegbox (like a 10c or 11c lute) which makes stretching of the middle courses more likely. A better solution is to smooth the offending nut grooves and lubricate them with beeswax or graphite. Bill From: Alain <al...@signtracks.com> To: Cc: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Sent: Monday, 30 April 2012, 20:02 Subject: [LUTE] Stringing a lute Hi everyone, When stringing a lute, some people like to cut the strings a little above the nut and tie them with a knot to some non-elastic material like rope or synthetic fiber of some kind that is wound to the peg. What are the advantages of proceeding this way as opposed to just keeping the string whole? Alain 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
