In the early 1960s I had a 1930 Ignacio Fleta guitar, a real beauty, flamed maple and spruce. In order to search for its "original" sound I ordered several sets of gut strings from LaBella somewhere around 1963. The strings that came were just about the same as the widely available strings in the 1930s. the basses were silk fiber overspun with metal, and the trebles were gut. Nice sound but the treble E string broke in less than an hour. None of them lasted long. The overspun silk basses had a dull sound. To me, nylon even on my heretical Papazian lute is a blessing. Oh yes, the 8 c. Papazian has Pegheds and fixed frets too. And while I'm at it, thank God for the tempered scale!
Chris -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan Winheld Sent: Friday, May 29, 2015 11:25 AM To: Christopher Wilke; [email protected]; sterling price; LuteNet list Cc: Charles Mokotoff; JosephMayes Subject: [LUTE] Re: [SUSPECTED SPAM] Re: Pegheads on new lute It's a free universe, indeed. And if a lutenist uses these diabolical tidbits from Satan's workshop because it's the only way he stay on top of keeping his GUT STRINGS in tune during a performance where he otherwise would be forced to use SYNTHETIC strings, has not a greater good been accomplished? Yes, his eternal soul still hangs in the balance; but in the Book of Life he is redeemed because the audience has heard music that not only is in tune (kinda critical, maybe more than the type of string, even) but the real sound of the true lute. The over-sustained sitar twang of the early Pyramid overspun basses has been absolutely the worst lutecrime in my aural experience- the equivalent of cheap worm-gears on a cigar box guitar. In any case, no one ever has to "hear" a peg. And if it looks identical to a real peg, it's not a visual distraction- It's just a damned accessory to make the MUSIC possible. Some professionals that I know have had schedules that were so busy that the sheer amount of even minor tuning resulted in strained fingers & wrists over extended rehearsal performance sessions (Baroque opera continuo work); I used to scoff at such weakness until I had that situation to endure myself, constantly "riding" the pegs to keep the wayward guts in line under marginal temperature/humidity conditions. Anything that helps is in order here, again the greater good would obviously be to keep performance ability uncompromised by "maintenance" issues. My only beef with the pegheads is strictly personal- that they don't benefit anything that I now do, or can foresee doing in the future, on the instruments I now own- and they put me- the player, no-one else- a remove away from what I want to feel in my ordinary tuning/lute handling experience, even slowing me down. But I am so glad that my Baroque lute student, due to arrive here in about an hour, has those darn pegheadz on HIS 24 string Burkholtzer copy because guess who has to tune it up for him- and still have time for a lesson! End of rant. Dan On 5/29/2015 6:46 AM, Christopher Wilke wrote: > Sterling, > > The last time I checked, it was still the prerogative of every musician to set up his or her instrument in whatever manner is deemed best to accomplish their personal artistic goals. > > Best, > Chris > > > > > Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > www.christopherwilke.com > > -------------------------------------------- > On Thu, 5/28/15, sterling price<[email protected]> wrote: > > > So I suppose the > next step is to graduate to metal frets and synthetic > strings, since they also have no fuss... > S > > ___________________________________ > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
