Hi Herbert,
You don't say whether your lute is 11c, 13c bass rider or 13c
swan-neck, but I would say that in my experience low tension stringing
does not work with wound strings. The combination of wound strings,
playing thumb-inside and over the rose, as many modern players do, gives
rise to problems which never existed in the past. It's worth
considering the Savarez KF strings for the basses (which are more dense
than gut but have no metal windings) and playing thumb-out, near the
bridge. Unfortunately the Savarez website gives no information about
the density of these strings and I have been assuming a density about
16% more than gut which seems to work. A recent stringing for an 11c
lute (69cm, a'=392) was as follows:
1 .44
2 .48
3 .60
4 .74
5 .82
6 KF95 +.60
7 KF105 + .64
8 KF116 + .76
9 KF125 + .80
10 KF136 + .88
11 KF150 + .97
In this case all the strings were gut except the KF. The tensions for
the KF strings a graded slightly from about 24N for the 6th course to
21N for the 11th course. The octaves are also graded from about 28N for
the 6th course to 26N for the 11th course. Note that (unlike modern
stringing practice) the octaves are slightly higher tension than the
fundamentals.
I also note that assuming that all baroque lutes (regardlessof string
length) are to be tuned to a'=415 is another modern practice which gives
rise to some problems. In the case of this 11c example, being able to
have a relatively thick gut top string gives a fantastic sound.
Best wishes,
Martin
On 25/04/2016 05:00, Herbert Ward wrote:
As an experiment, I put extremely light strings on my baroque lute.
This made the tone very difficult to control. This is pretty good
practice, but in a month or two I need to venture out of the house
with the lute.
So it's string buying time.
Can someone give me a Savarez PUL number for the fundamental of the
9th course (E) at A=415 with a 68.5 cm string length? Also helpful
would be an indication of whether the PUL corresponds to heavy, medium,
or light stringing.
Google searches gave nothing useful.
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