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Wound Strings: Underlayer vs. No Underlayer
An option is available for the Academie line of wound strings involving the silk underlayer. By default this is a thin wrapping of silk that is wound around the gut core of the string before the wire (Silver, Silverplate, Copper, Copper/Silver) is wound on. For many years we have been putting this underlayer on Academie strings in response to customer requests, but awareness and knowledge of historical performance practice has progressed enough now that we now offer this feature as an option.
According to our research, it is unlikely that such an underlayer would have been used on wound music strings before about 1900 — and for those players who want to explore the true nature of historical strings, we offer to make strings without this buffer layer.
The effect of the underlayer is to increase the internal damping in the string which gives the string a warmer tone. Without the underlayer, the tone of the string is brighter and has more of the lush, ravishing tone attributed to historical times. The addition of the underlayer also assists in stabilizing the string and increases its longevity.
Will the Underlayer Protect Against Changes to Humidity?
There is no difference in regard to protection against humidity with underlayer versus no underlayer. At the core (ha!) the gut will expand or shrink depending on the environment, regardless of windings. Our plain gut strings are available with varnish, which can help mitigate this, but only to a certain extent.
The best advice we can give to protect your strings is to shoot for 30-45% relative humidity and consistency.
What Are Those Little Black Squares That Came With My String??
Those little black squares are anti-tarnish strips put in the envelopes of strings wound in sterling silver to avoid tarnish. Sterling tarnishes, turning black-ish in color, and cosmetically looks bad. The anti-tarnish strips react to hydrogen sulfide and other tarnish-causing gases to neutralize them. If the silver string tarnishes it is still perfectly fine, but these little squares help prevent tarnish.