Gut vs Nylon string tension
David Schramm
sets used on classical guitars in the early to mid 20th century. It
seems like Hauser I, Manuel Ramirez, Santos Hernandez and others built
rather lightly. Any observations by others?
DS
David C. Hurd
According to Franz Jahnel "Manual of Guitar Technology", (English
version), pp. 207-210, the tensile strength of gut strings is ~ 1/3 less
than that of nylon. See Fig 160., pp. 207. Further on in the discussions,
however, the range of gut is essentially the same as several Du Pont nylon
varieties (right hand table, pp.209). It would make sense to me that the
guitars were lightly built both because of the nylon and also perhaps
because of the available bass strings, which might have been lighter. Too,
earlier makers might have been making more of the parlor guitars rather than
the "boom box" which seems to have come more into favor in the last half of
the last century. Just MHO...
aloha,
David
"David Schramm" <da...@schrammguitars.com> wrote in message
news:3A48250D...@schrammguitars.com...
David Schramm
I've been meaning to get that book for a long time.
DS
David C. Hurd
and a lot of less so. I would guess that the current price is $125-150
which is right up there. If the Internet weren't around it would be more
useful, but now, I'm not sure. The instrument plans are interesting but
only detailed enough for a very experienced builder. The calculation
sections are also good, provided you speak metric. There are relatively few
typos that I've run across, but then since I'm error prone myself, there may
be more than I realize...;)news:3A482FF8...@schrammguitars.com...
David Schramm
DS
Dan O'Mara
period instruments.
(Click on "Store" go to "strings for early instruments" (www.labella.com)
In general gut tensions run toward the high end for a given mensur at a
diameter equal to an equivalent nylon string, which would seem consistent
with the 20% or so higher density of gut.
I imagine that gut string tensions were not significantly lower than those
of current nylon sets, and that other considerations were made in
constructing lightly. As to whether that was the availability of higher
stiffness to mass ratio materials, or less consideration given to long term
structural viability versus volume and timbre would possibly be interesting
questions.
I'm returning to a long put off project with a small instrument intended to
be strung with gut primarily to get a somewhat higher tension at a 640mm
string length. Since the body is so small (305mm lower bout) the deck
weighs less than 140 grams. I'll have to scratch my head about how to get
the bridge to mass low enough not to have the impedance of a brick.
I, for one, would be very interested in what conclusions you come to on
this subject.
Stan Gosnell
>La Bella, on its website lists tensions for its gut strings for various
>period instruments.
D'Addario also has string tensions for a wide variety of instruments,
including a number of guitar strings.