Dear Ralf, I am mostly a gut user on my instruments, but I do have 2 instruments in synthetic strings. I am familiar with the problem you are describing.
First of all, I think lutes sound their best when strung with the same pitch and tension you would use for gut. In other words, if you want to have a gut treble "g" at a=440, if you exceed 59 cm length, it will result in string breaking prematurely. This is when using gut... the same might be for nylgut. At 63 cm, it is too long of a mensur for gut, and it also may be too long for nylgut. I have never had problems with nylon trebles breaking at 63 cm at "g". Also, nylgut stretches a lot, and the diameter actually becomes smaller as it stretches. This might be your problem. Could you use nylon trebles? I think this would solve your problem. Nylon is not as bright as gut or nylgut, but I think it is more sturdy than the nylgut trebles you are using; with nylon, you would be safe in not expecting string breakage. The other option would be to use carbon, but they sound very bright, in my opinion. For now, it seems your options are to play a semi-tone lower at a=415 (this might not be appropriate, if you are in ensembles tuned at 440) , or to use nylon or carbon. I hope this helps, ed At 08:36 AM 6/13/2013, R. Mattes wrote: >Dear collected lute list wisdom, > >I just tried to switch my (late) medieval lute from >all gut to all nylgut, everything fine, except: the top >strings (63cm / g' @ 440 Hz - using 0.42mm) can't be put up to full tension. >Both strings imediately break directly at the bridge. Strangely >the aren't even close to their breaking point (at least they still >feel quite elsatic). Bridge design can't be the problem - the >bridge is rather soft and well worn out (and I never had a broken >top at the bridge, even in much thinner gut). >Is this a known problem. Did I get samples from a bad batch? > >TIA Ralf Mattes > >P.S.: off course this always happens the day before an important >rehearsal ... > >-- >R. Mattes - >Hochschule fuer Musik Freiburg >[email protected] > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: [email protected] voice: (218) 728-1202 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name http://www.myspace.com/edslute http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin
