I disagree Matthew, Bear in mind that thin gut strings stretch and thus thin significantly when up to tension. So your 0.40 would be closer to 0.37 when up to pitch. I was basing tension calculations (as they ought to be for accuracy) on stretched/thinned strings: thus the 0.34mm string would be around 0.37 unstretched.......... not a million miles from your 0.40mm unstretched! Perhaps a matter of taste. For example, I employ an unstretched 0.40mm diamter plain gut on my G lute (@A415) with string length of 64cm (which is roughly equivalent to your ).40 unthinned at 60cm @A440) - but this follows the early advice to use bigger strings on bigger lutes which ensures a similar feel rather than he same tension. I prefer 0.37mm on a small lute of 60cm. rgds Martyn __________________________________________________________________
From: Matthew Daillie <dail...@club-internet.fr> To: "lute@cs.dartmouth.edu" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Tuesday, 12 December 2017, 11:55 Subject: [LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545 There are two issues: the length and the diameter. It is not easy to find thin gauge gut strings long enough for a 130 cm diapason. A string of 0.34 is incredibly thin. I don't even know if they are available and if they are, they certainly wouldn't last long. I very much doubt that historical string makers were able to produce gut strings for lutes of such a small diameter. A gut string of 0.40 would be more appropriate for the top course of a renaissance lute in G at 60 cm. Best, Matthew On 12/12/2017 12:25, Martyn Hodgson wrote: > Dear Magnus, > I really don't see what the problem is: for a theorbo with doubled > octave strung basses, if your highest pitched open 7th course bass > octave is g (assuming a theorbo in nominal A), then for, say, a tension > around 3.2KG (obviously less than if single strung) the diameter of a > plain gut string of length 130cm is about 0.34mm. > This size is readily available in gut and is, indeed, the sort of > diameter required for the first course of a common renaissance lute (at > nominal G). In short, the gut size available then, as now, for lute > first course would have been equally available for the 7th course > octave of the first bass of a short second necked theorbo. > However, as Martin Shepherd points out, the present day state of this > instrument may not be as it first left the maker's workshop..... > Longer basses may have been present originally. 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