I measured seven Savarez Alliance KF strings, and compared my measurements with the sizes printed on the envelopes. These were brand-new unused strings.
There was quite a bit of inconsistency. My measurements ranged from 4% above the envelope value to 4% below. But it seems strange that people who achieve the precision needed to make a lute string would be so imprecise in labeling their envelopes. I'm guessing that they round the number off to the closest whole number. For example, a KF 52 might actually be KF 52.2. Then they propagate that inaccuracy to the inches number. At any rate, this complicates the process of ordering replacements for broken strings. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
