Dear Lucas,
Around 30 years ago I made a chitarra battente for the tenor Riccardo
Marasco (at that time living Florence).
It was based on a Sellas instrument with an arched back but the neck
was shorter than a comparable gut strung guitar. I think the string
length was around 62cm rather than around 68/69cm I used for gut string
guitars on this same mould. But of course the bridge was much higher
up (ie further towards the neck) than a gut strung guitar (around 13cm
rather than 9cm) and this therefore still allowed the 11th fret to be
at the neck/body joint. In retrospect I might now make the neck even
shorter since, when I came to string it up, I had problems bringing
the first course up to pitch (he wanted it to be able to come up to
A440) without breaking. This was also partly due to using iron
harpsichord strings which I thought was the closest I'd get to the old
iron/steel strings.
I've dug out my stringing and I'm interested to see that I put octaves
on both the 4th and 5th course with the bourdon outwards (ie struck
first with the thumb) - why? - I can't recall now.
1. e' 0.018mm iron x 2
2. b 0.023mm iron x 2
3. g 0.028mm brass x 2
4. d' 0.019mm iron
d 0.039mm brass
5. a 0.025mm iron
A 0.050mm brass (I would have liked to have used twisted brass
for this but couldn't master the technology!)
I based this spec on giving around 3.5Kg nominal tension with
approximately equal feel accross all courses - rather higher than a
comparative gut strung instrument but I think based on the sort of
playing ie robust strumming with a plectrum which I expected it to be
used for. And, of course, also evidenced by the need for a bend in the
belly like the metal strung Neopolitan mandolin.
I think the use of the same gauge string for all courses might be a
later peasant usage (ie multiple gauges being not readily available in
more recent times ie 20th century) but I know of no sources for
stringing from around the time the instrument seems to have been used
in the 18th (or 19th) century.
MH.
I've dug out the stri
--- On Sat, 18/12/10, Lucas Harris <lucashar...@rogers.com> wrote:
From: Lucas Harris <lucashar...@rogers.com>
Subject: [LUTE] Chitarra battente stringing
To: l...@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Saturday, 18 December, 2010, 3:18
Hello, friends!
I have a question for anybody out there that might have more
experience
with metal strings than I do.
I'm struggling to set up a new chitarra battente, which arrived (as
is
the tradition) with the same thin steel string gauge across all 5
courses. So, the first course (e) is super tense, and the third
course
(g) is slack like spaghetti, and everything else is somewhere in
between. The problem is that the spaghetti courses go super sharp
when
fretted, so it's really hard to tune any chords (i.e., even E major
has
the G# on the first fret which is already screaming high).
I put some brass strings (from my bandora case) on the G and A, and
it
really helped the tuning and got the instrument through its first
concert. However, all of the brass strings have broken, one by one.
I'm really not sure why - the tension was not so high, and although
the
coils are pretty old I wouldn't have guessed age to make much
difference in a metal string.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anybody has experience trying to string a
battente in a way that is more equal-tension-ish (like a lute or
Baroque guitar) perhaps with harpsichord strings, and if so if they
would share their stringing chart with me. Any prompt help would be
appreciated (the instrument needs to be playable by Sunday - in a
pinch
I will just put the spaghetti strings back on).
Many thanks!!!!
Best,
Lucas Harris
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