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Violin ‘E’ Steel vs. Gut
By Adam Guggemos
The debate over steel versus gut for the violin e-1 string has been ongoing since the 1880s, with very strong and precise opinions on both sides. This consideration came into sharper focus during and following World War I primarily due to material scarcity.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 decimated any future prospect of exports of quality raw gut material from the Eurasian steppe, while the close of World War I saw Germany effectively ceasing the level of gut string export it had maintained for over 100 years; all while every country capable was hungry for steel for industry, manufacture, and military (steel itself would become a scarce commodity at the lead-up to World War II, necessitating the adoption of modern synthetic strings).
The Journal of the American Musicological Society notes: “The driving force behind this change was World War I. The conflict shut down the export of gut strings from Germany, the world’s largest producer, and vast quantities of sheep intestines — necessary for gut strings — were desperately needed for sutures.” [The Great War, the Little String, and the Transformation of Modern Violin Playing - Mark Katz. Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 77, pp. 65-101, 2024 — special thanks to Mark Katz for providing a copy of his article.]
An October 2013 article by Jeffrey Solow in The Strad magazine (pp. 61-64) highlights performers’ perspectives on the historical adoption of this musical innovation before, during, and after World War I for the violin:
“Yes, I use a wire E string. In New Orleans I snapped seven gut strings at a single concert. After my last New York recital, Ysaÿe asked me, ‘What strings do you use?’ When I told him I used a wire E he confessed that he could not have told the difference. And, in fact, he has adopted the wire E just like Kreisler and others, and has told me that he is charmed with it — for Ysaÿe has had a great deal of trouble with his strings. I shall continue to use them even after the war, when it will be possible to obtain good gut strings again.”
— Frederick H. Martens, quoting Jacques Thibaud c. 1917.
From the player’s perspective, it can be said that the steel E string was a welcome innovation of irritation-removal, as the demands of playing on gut depend greatly on the quality and consistency of strings — which has varied from maker to maker, region to region, and century to century:
“It is well known that most foreign strings have lost their quality for some time now. I can speak from my own experience, since I am so well informed from Rome, as well as direct from Florence. Not only will such strings become very expensive due to long-distance transport, but I have alway been able to consider it a very excellent choice when 20 in a stock of 30 [strings] are usable.”
[German] Magazin der Musik (Magazine of Music) - Unattributed. 1783
“Anyone who can still remember the times when the violin maker had to fight the battle with the string material, where he had to cut out fifth-perfect parts from impure strings or such sand it yourself with a parallel sandpaper machine, had to grind clean themselves, where the complaints about the impurity of the strings would not stop, where clean ends came out of mountains of strings, where one sang one lament after the other about the hardness of the material and about easy, all too quick tearing, whoever has experienced for himself how much time was wasted in misfortunes, he will only have an appreciative word to say about the current conditions in the string trade today.”
[German] Die Kunst des Geigenbaues (The Art of Violin Making) - Otto Möckel. Leipzig, 1930
During this musical sea change, Carl Flesch's 1923 Die Kunst des Violin-Spiels (The Art of Playing the Violin) provided his detailed pros and cons on the differences between steel versus gut for the violin e-1 string:
“The question of whether the E-string should be made of gut or steel is particularly important. The question has quite a bearing on string factories and string dealers, because if all violinists switch to steel strings, the string industry will be badly damaged. But it's also very important to us [players], so I want to present the pros and cons impartially. I will first describe the advantages of the E-string made of steel.
It is not subject to the effects of moisture, so it does not whistle in humid air or hand perspiration.
The tone never changes, not even with high, long-held notes close to the bridge.
Easier generation of high trills. If, for some reason, the gut fifth is no longer quite fresh and flawless, producing high trills […] is very uncertain and often even impossible. On a steel string, however, they never fail.
Their tone color is softer than that of the gut fifth. In the case of violins with too sharp a pitch, a significant improvement in this situation is achieved simply by using the steel E.
The risk of tearing is eliminated. If the steel string is renewed once a week, one can count on its integrity with the greatest certainty, regardless of its use. How calming this feeling is for the concert artist can only be appreciated by someone who, during the public performance of a great work, has had to witness in impotent rage the gradual failure of his E-string until the long-dreaded bang takes him (and sometimes the listeners) from cruel torment.
It keeps the mood in an excellent way. It never lets up even at the warmest temperature, which has the disadvantage, however, that when the other three strings in the concert hall become lower, the steel E-string usually ends up sounding too high.
Both in itself and due to its longer usability, it is considerably cheaper. In January 1923, a fifth-perfect gut E-string cost 400 M [Papiermark], a first-class steel E-string 50 M. The concert violinist uses an average of 120-150 gut E-strings (50-60,000 M), around 50-60 in a year steel E-strings (approx. 3,000 M). For the orchestra violinist, the ratio shifts significantly in favor of the steel E-string, since the latter can be played for a whole month under certain circumstances. [This time period was also the height of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.]
Their disadvantages, on the other hand, are:
Greater wear and tear on the bow hairs. The barbs of the bow hairs that cause the string to be plucked are worn out much more quickly by the steel-E, which means that the hair appears dull after a relatively short time (about 3 weeks) and no longer accepts the rosin dust. The bow must therefore be haired much more often than when using the gut-E, which means considerably higher expenses arise.
More frequent tearing of bow hairs. One of the most unpleasant side effects, especially for concert violinists. The bow hair, which is torn in two and oscillating back and forth in the air, sometimes tries to be placed under one of the gripping fingers in higher registers, causing the bow to suddenly get stuck on the upstroke. Nervous fear of this accident, which is usually inexplicable to the listener because it is invisible, often impairs the performance in a disruptive way.
Frequent failure of the open string in legato. An empty E occurring in a tied change of strings often cannot be made to vibrate and whistles […].
Occasional impure vibrations. In the case of tones played with the 1st or 2nd finger, the steel E-string sometimes sounds inexplicably unclean. One racks one’s brain about the cause of this defect, blames the inferior quality of the string — and misses the truth. Only on closer inspection do we find the following: the thickness of the D string exceeds 1mm and causes equally large cuts (grooves), especially on the index and middle fingers. The steel string, on the other hand, only has a diameter of ¼ mm. If the latter now comes into the 1 mm deep groove, it is actually in a cavity, is not sufficiently delimited and vibrates just as imperfectly as any gut string that is pressed down too weakly by the finger […]. A serious drawback, however, which in my opinion is a main argument agains using the steel E-string […].
Matter timbre. The steel fifth lacks the full, lively, harsh quality of the gut fifth, which is again a disadvantage for instrument with a soft, small tone. The pizzicato also sounds drier.
Decreased tactile sensitivity. This inconvenience is only present at the first and disappears with increasing familiarity with the lighter string.
Inaccurate tuning. The steel E can only be tuned in with great difficulty and imprecisely using the usual peg. However, there are aids in the form of a so-called fine tuner to be fitted in the peg box or on the tailpiece, which enables precise tuning.”
[German] Die Kunst des Violin-Spiels (The Art of Playing the Violin) - Carl Flesch. Ries & Erles/Berlin, 1923
The second edition of Carl Flesch’s Art of Playing the Violin provides further insight into the musical adaptations occurring “through the violin-playing world” of 1929:
“The metal string gradually threatens to completely replace the gut string. The upheaval began with the E-string, which was frowned upon 20 years ago. It was followed by the aluminum D, and more recently the steel A seems to be completing the transformation. I'm still opposed to the A-string made of steel, at least for the time being, while I've already become a supporter of the other two. The overspun [gut/metal-wound] D string has the advantage of easier response, greater resilience, and brighter timbre. The flageolets appear more reliable than on the gut D string, which is so hairy in this respect.
[…]
Despite all this, the steel E has already completed its triumphal march through the violin-playing world*, and the gut E is hardly used by professional violinists these days.
*Footnote: The best proof of this can be seen in the fact that I devoted a full two pages to this subject in the first edition of this work, which appeared in 1923, with the intention of combating the resistance to the steel string that still existed at that time, while after five years, a few lines are enough to justify the turnaround that has meanwhile taken place.”
[German] Die Kunst des Violinspiels, Bd. 1: Allgemeine und Angewandte Technik, 2. Auflage (The Art of Playing the Violin, Vol. 1: General and Applied Technology, 2nd Edition) - Carl Flesch. Ries & Erles/Berlin, 1929
Of course, rewind or fast forward from this moment in history, and personal opinions will… vary greatly:
“The discovery of the steel wire signifies the triumph of feeble inertia, the pyrrhic victory of a pathetic, materialistic, externalized conception over a creatively original artistic expression unique in its delicacy. Certainly the steel strings are cheap, as cheap and convenient as all the excuses that have always been available to the lazy perseverance that evades every external and internal struggle. The violinist, before making the sacrifice of money and effort for a real reference, will smoke cigarettes a thousand times. But all the morphine shouldn't lull his conscience to sleep before he realizes that he's doing something wrong with the instrument that he claims to love more than anything.
The instrument in his nature has become alien to him, and with this alienation he is alienated from himself, because without courage and confidence in his inner feelings he does not dare to approach the beautiful original reference in his insecurity. He's scared and afraid of the real strings because they might be mirrors showing him his inability. He knows deep down that he is a scratcher [hack] and wants to deceive nature with the sham reference that reveals nothing but paints up all weaknesses and colors the ugly beautifully. And he also fears the expense of money, fears it almost more than the embarrassment of himself. The steel fifth is comfortable and cheap! Cheap, dear reader? It's the most expensive thing you could ever imagine.
As always and everywhere in daily life, the cheap shoddy goods cost us more and more dearly than the genuine, the expensive. If the violinist really knew how to calculate, they should not only consider the weak, more than dubious profit account, but also the loss [losing] side of these events. To their horror they will find that the losses exceed the gains, the apparent gains, so far that any claim for damages will be far less than the damage caused by this aberration of the sense of origin.
[…]
Playing on real strings differs in the expression functions primarily in that the pressure, the sharp cutting of the steel string, can be transferred from low pressure to expression. The most visible is the functional difference in the chromaticism. First of all, the artist should perform the single chromatic without a bow, in order to feel the noise as distinct from slipping on the steel string. The player must now pay particular attention to the bow technique, which in the relieved form of expressive movement, of drawing out, forms the connection for the expressive finger attachment. Precisely because the pressure organ cannot be clearly seen in its depressing effect on the steel string, this forgery, which is one of the most refined and hardly detectable human hallucinations, became possible in the first place.”
[German] Wiederaufstieg oder Untergang er Kunst des Geigens. Die Kunstfeindliche Stahlsaite (The Rise or Fall of the Art of Violin. The Anti-art Steel String) - Siegfried Eberhardt. Vienna, 1938
And so, the spirited debate continues on into modern times. Even the 20th century saitenmachermeister (master string-maker) had strong opinions, well after the hearty adoption of the steel E string by the general violin-playing public. From an “…Interview, Johannes Mothes describes the string making manufacturing process as he experienced it in Markneukirchen between 1941 and 1990”:
“Gut strings were already decreasing in importance, but they still played a role. Then came the whole trend with guitars. Clap, clap, it has to clap. It couldn't be so gentle anymore. Gut strings sounded gentle, i.e. soft. Not like the steel strings, that's hard. Just take a look how they're clapping today. Yes, and exactly the same with the violin. Gut strings, that was just a soft tone. The sound of the steel strings is shrill.”
[German] Werdegang eines Saitenmachermeisters 1941-1990 (Career of a Master String Maker 1941-1990) - Johannes Mothes & Heidrun Eichler. Markneukirchen/Bern, 2019
Excerpts translated from [German] [PDF] Meisterleistungen Deutscher Instrumentenbaukunst, Bd. 8: Saitenherstellung in Markneukirchen und im Vogtland (Masterpieces of German Instrument Making, Vol. 8: String Production in Markneukirchen and In the Vogtland) - Kai Köpp, Jane Achtman, Johannes Gebauer (editors). Markneukirchen/Bern, 2019
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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.
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