Gimped Gut

This type of string was first mentioned in 1664 and marks the first evidence of joining wire with musical strings.

There is some room for discussion as to exactly what the nature of the gimped string was; some feel that it was a gut or silk string wound with metal wire, and there is other evidence that it consisted of a wire that was wound into the gut, rather than on top of the gut, and this is the model concept we have used to develop our string.

The wire is twisted into the gut at the time of construction to resist buzzing and failure. There are several ways one can construct this string. The way that I have settled upon is a type of Pistoy construction so that the string will be as flexible as possible. This is important as the introduction of the wire has a stiffening effect.

The process embeds the wire into the string so there is no roughness due to the wire. The string is polished smooth in our polishing machine, but some strings have a slight texture to them. The gimped string is characterized by the barber-pole or candy stripe appearance of the wire in the twist of the gut.

We use two different types of wire for gimped strings; copper and silver.  The copper wire is a little lighter than silver, so the resulting strings are slightly larger in diameter than the equivalent silver gimped string, and the copper makes the string slightly brighter in tone. Silver, being a heavier material, allows the string to have more weight with less gut, so these strings will be thinner than the equivalent copper gimped string, and, since silver is a softer than copper, silver gimped strings are softer and more flexible.

The tone of the gimped string is going to be influenced by the gauge of the string and the type of wire used. Therefore, it is acceptable to mix them to attain a balance in the tone of an instrument. For instance, if a baroque lute were being strung with gimped basses it might work better for the higher courses, say the 7th, 8th and 9th to be strung with copper gimps and use the silver gimps for courses 10 through 13.

Gimped strings are gauged by the equivalent diameter system. This means that a given string is equal in weight to a certain gut diameter but the actual diameter of the string is smaller due to the added weight of the wire. A gimped string may be gauged at =1.50 mm but the actual diameter of the string is 1.10 mm. The thinness and wire give a bright tone.

Copper gimped strings are available in gauges equivalent =.94mm to =2.00mm in increments of =.02mm.

Silver gimped strings are available from =1.40mm to =2.70mm in increments of =.02mm.

Gimped Gut Strings are best used for:

  • Violin: D-3 and G-4

  • Viola: G-3 and C-4

  • Cello: G-3 and C-4

  • Bass viol: C-4, G-5, and D-6

  • Tenor viol: F-4, C-5 and G-6

  • Treble viol: c-4 G-5, and D-6

  • Lute: c-5, G-6 and lower fundamentals

  • Harp bass strings

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Hand-made in the USA by Gamut Music, Inc., a leader in the revival of early music strings and instruments. Gut strings are not intended to be used with fine tuners or string adjusters, and those devices should be removed before installing the gut string on the instrument.

All Gamut Academie strings (pure gut and gut/metal-wound) are made with beef serosa unless they specifically say "Sheep Gut." All pure gut Tricolore violin and viola strings are made with sheep gut; gut/metal-wound Tricolore and all Red Diamond strings are made with beef serosa.

Gamut gut string gauges are approximate (≈) diameter. Meaning, that while a ≈0.60mm string is polished in the workshop to a diameter of 0.60mm, changes in ambient humidity, temperature, shipping, and storage conditions can cause to string to expand or contract slightly.

Gimped gut strings and custom gauged equal tension strings are gauged with the equivalent-gauge (=) system. This means that the gauge listed, such as =1.50mm, indicates that the string is approximately equal in weight to a plain gut string of that diameter. Of course, because the wire is much heavier than gut, the string will be much thinner than a plain gut string.

More information about Gamut gut strings, string types, gauges, and string tensions can be found on our FAQ/Articles page. Not finding an answer to your question? Please contact us directly: support@gamutmusic.com.