Wound Strings
Gamut Music offers a unique line of wound strings for bowed and plucked instruments. The machines used to put the wire on the gut were made and used originally by the Perfection Musical String Co. of Brunswick, IN — the company that made the old Wonder Tone, Gold Label and Tricolore strings. The cello string machine from this workshop was made in about 1900 and has been making strings almost daily for over 120 years.
The recipes of the strings, the diameters of gut and wire, have been carefully researched to duplicate the kind of tones and tensions that were used historically.
Silver-Wound / Gut Core (polished)
We use pure silver wire that is specially drawn and tempered to our specifications for each type of instrument. The silver wire is laid onto the core in tandem except for the equal-tensioned silver wound strings which have a single wire wound on to them. The wire is round, but when the wire is in place on the core it is polished so that the surface of the string is smooth. The tone of the silver string is characterized by warmth and power.
Silver-Copper-Wound / Gut Core (polished)
This type of string is represented by several extant samples of strings from the early 1800s that were made for the violin and cello. The copper and silver wires are laid onto the gut core in tandem creating a striped barber-pole effect if the string is looked at closely. Like the silver strings, the round wire is wound onto the core and then polished smooth. Since the speed of sound is faster in copper than it is in silver, the copper wire lends a little brightness to the tone of these strings making the silver / copper string a good choice for an instrument that has a dark lower register, or if you just want to try a new tone on your instrument.
Silver-Plated-Copper-Wound / Gut Core (round wire)
One of the most common wires seen on historical strings is silver-plated copper. Before the advent of electroplating, wire was plated with silver through a chemical process and there are extant strings of this type that were made for the violin family and keyboard instruments. The wire we use, like the historical examples, is round and left round on the core so that the tops of the wire can be felt. If the wire were polished the plating would be removed. The tone of these strings is very bright and this is a good, general use string for most instruments.
Copper-Wound / Gut Core (polished)
This is a special string we make only for the violin and contra bass. It consists of a round copper wire that is wound onto the gut core and then polished smooth. It has a bright tone, but because the wire is polished it is not as bright as a round wire string. The copper string is especially useful for instruments that have a dark lower register that needs to have the tone brightened and clarified.
Wound Strings Are Available For:
Violin: G-4
Viola: G-3 and C-4
Cello: G-3 and C-4
Contrabass A-3, E-4 and C/D-5
Bass viol: G-5, D-6 and A-7
Tenor viol: C-5 and G-6
Treble viol: G-5 and D-6
Lute: G-6 and lower fundamentals
What Is The Difference Between Underlayer and No Underlayer?
An option is available for the Academie line of wound strings involving including or excluding the silk underlayer.
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.
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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.