Talking of parsimony with string material - I really grudge the ends I need to trim off my fret gut after tying the knot. Effectively I'm throwing away at least as much as I'm keeping. I have tried shorter ends and pulling them tight with pliers, but don't feel comfortable with these sharp, scratchy pliers near my precious lutes.
Anybody found a way to save on fret gut? Bill From: Sean Smith <[email protected]> To: lute <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, 30 April 2012, 20:33 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Stringing a lute I call that extra tied on bit a leader. If I use a less stretchy material I know I'll have less spring between peg and nut which speeds and stabilizes tuning. That w/ a bit of beeswax at the nut makes for quicker work. The other reason I'll use it is economy. Sometimes I can get two lengths from a string that would give only one w/out a leader --or three from a nominally two-length string. If I'm _really_ in a pinch the knot will start off between the nut and the 1st fret and just lie behind the nut when tuned up which is not for the faint of heart. I have many different size lutes so I'm constantly measuring and planning. Sometimes I'll use a slightly larger diameter gut string or a hemp string. Back in the late 70's my lute teacher (a master of string parsimony) advocated good old kitchen string. Sean ps Ha! 3 folks already answered while it took me the same time to oversay the same thing. Hell, I'll send it anyway. On Apr 30, 2012, at 12:02 PM, Alain wrote: 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
