Getting exact same tension between fundamental and octave is next to
impossible and ludicrous. Of course that wouldn't have been a
possibility In the Renaissance and lutes must certainly have been out
of tune..but our modern ear wants otherwise. My strings are not THAT
much different in tension..the elasticity of the loaded nylgut is the
main culprit..my options are going back to wound on the courses in
octaves that are on the fingerboard or go for unions and adjust the
frets.
BRUNO
Sent from my Bell Samsung device over Canada's largest network.
-------- Original message --------
From: Dan Winheld <dwinh...@lmi.net>
Date: 2017-02-28 8:07 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: Miles Dempster <miles.demps...@gmail.com>, lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Subject: [LUTE] Re: basses in octaves
On 2/28/2017 4:06 PM, Miles Dempster wrote:
"Maybe it could help if the octave is closer in tension to the
fundamental."
Bingo!- Miles wins. It became a custom to string lutes with absurdly
slack octaves early in the lute re-Renaissance, as they were
functionally useless; the overspun basses already being so overly heavy
on the harmonics. Until we started seriously playing with gut basses we
didn't even actually know the true purpose of the octave strings. (I
know I didn't!) We now know that the gut octaves must be the same
tension as the fundamentals for the whole system to work sonically &
intonationally.
But if those new ones really are going flat going up the neck, yes
that's a deal breaker on any fingered bass courses. I have not yet
tried the new CD loadeds- it sure seems counter intuitive that the
thick string would go flat as it frets up the fingerboard (if it is not
false!). Too flexible- very interesting- are we stringing to loosely? I
remember attempting to use thick, stiff, low twist harp strings back in
the 1970's for lute basses- what a disaster!
Any other experiences from players using these? Not willing to pull the
trigger yet for 7 B-lute bass strings and 4 10 course lute bass strings
until this is sorted out.
Dan
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