LOADED GUT BASS STRINGS  " C " TYPE


They are here!



 Please, before to place orders give a look here:

Advice and Assistance
How to order
How to pay


                                      
 11 course d minor lute set-up                                             Viola da braccio set-up 
(the 11th bass loaded string is of 1.30 mm diameter = 2.00 equivalent gut )                                



Hear an example of the sound of a 11 courses d- minor lute with the new loaded gut string basses Here  (942 Kb)

INTRODUCTION

The appearing of wound strings caused, starting from the end of the 17th century, the definitive abandoning of the ancient manufacturing techniques of the traditional all-gut bass strings. This explains why modern plain gut strings fail to produce an acceptable acoustical performance in the low registers, thus making it unavoidable to use wound strings for musical repertoires that actually pre-date their historical appearing; this, in turn, causes an obvious philological paradox as well as serious tone and balance problems between high and low registers. A large number of bass stringhole diameters recorded from original Lute bridges dating from the late 16th and 17th century shows that those holes are too small to allow plain gut strings a sufficient working tension at the proper pitch. Musical iconography from the 17th century also shows often bass gut strings of quite different colors from that typical of plain gut, varying from dark red to brown only. Treatises of the time confirm, too, that strings possessed a remarkable duration of sound and acoustical exuberance (see: Mersenne 'Harmonie Universelle', Paris 1636; 'The Mary Burwell Lute Tutor', 1670 ca.).
All this suggests a rivolutionary hypothesis: the loading of gut, a technological strategy that we believe employed by the ancient string-makers in order to render the strings to be used in the low registers more sonorous.

                                      Iconographical examples

                                               

                                                                                                                                                   7course lute: detail


         F. Le Troy (1690 ca.) Detail of the Charles Mouton's portrait                           Jakob  Lindberg playing his  11 course d- minor  lute





 
    Anonymous dutch painter, 1st half of the 17th C: detail               Anonymous french painter, 1st half of the 17th C: detail of the lute player







                                                                                     Girolamo Martinelli, 2nd half of the 17th C: Concerto in casa Lazzari

                                                            Girolamo Martinelli: detail of violone                       Girolamo Martinelli: detail of the violone strings

     


             Girolamo Martinelli: detail on the bass-violin string           Francois le Troy, 2nd half of the 17th C: detail on the brown basses


                                          
                                  Anonymous dutch painter, 2nd half of the 17th C: detail of the red bass strings on a 12 course lute




Rutilio Manetti, Siena 1624: detail on the brown Lute bass strings and on the Violin brown 3rd & 4th strings ("...best strings are Roman 1st & 2nd of Venice catlins: 3rd & 4th best be finest & smoothest Lyons, all 4 differ in size..." James Talbot's manuscript, 1695 ca)


Completely re-designed!
Special smooth roped gut strings (like ours VENICES ) characterized by a high, standardized specific weight (twice than natural gut) , achieved by a loading process with metallic copper powder. Diameters smaller than 180 C are manufactured with a gradual loading decrease, in order to keep the otherwise excessive brightness of sound of the thinner strings under control and at the same time to obtain a higher tensile resistance and a longer playing life.
Reddish brown color,oiled surface.



ACOUSTICAL PROPERTIES AND FIELD OF APPLICATION
Strong and warm tone, without the excessive brightness typical of wound strings, perfectly coherent with the tone and dynamics character of gut high strings. Excellent in staying in tune, better than any plain Gut, Nylon Nylgut and wound strings available today.
 Indispensable for Renaissance and Baroque stringing till the 1st half of the 17th Century, in the strictest respect to authenticity.


WHAT MEAN 140 C ?

To keep calculations simple and make it possible to use any available string-calculator,  C type loaded gut strings, as well as wound Nylgut ones D and DE types, are referred to by a letter following a number indicating the theoretical equivalent diameter of a plain gut string. 

E. g. "140 C" stands for a loaded string (indicated by the letter "C" ) corresponding to a high twist gut of 1.40 mm. in diameter. The actual diameter of the strings  is, of course, smaller but under playing conditions it will have the same working tension as a gut string of 140 mm. diameter at equal pitch.



...to learn more: check at our  FAQ

                                                                            

Notice! These strings are made for basses only. Please do not use them as cello 2nd & 3rd (cello must work with wound strings), Gambas 3rd & 4th; Viola da braccio 2nd.

                       

                                               STRING LENGHT: 120 cms

 TYPE PRICE  €
112 C 23.10
120 C 23.10
124 C 26.40
132 C 26.40
140 C 31.30
150 C 36.10
160 C 36.10
170 C 38.80
180 C 38.80
190 C 39.00
200 C 43.10
210 C 43.10
220 C 43.10
240 C 50.70
250 C 50.70
270 C 61.60
280 C 61.60
300 C 64.00
320 C 68.00
340 C 68.00
360 C 72.00
380 C 72.00
400 C 74.00

+ IVA   -   VAT   -   TVA


      

    4th hole measurement made on the Charles IX Andrea Amati's viol (1570 ca?). Ashmolean    Museum, Oxford
maximum passing diameter: 2.30 mm


   
               


- GUT LOADING IS THE ORIGINAL AND EXCLUSIVE RESULT OF AQUILA'S OWN RESEARCH -

 Back