Addendum: Metal and
metal wound strings
Here, I will summarize what I think about metal strings and
metal wound based on literature and information on web sites and
catalog of string manufacturers. I will update as I get new
information.
Metal
strings
The first metal string for musical instruments was used in
southern Germany after 14th century. Strings made of iron, copper or
silver seem to be used in these early days. Iron strings were first
mentioned in 1511 and stretched by hand. Regarding strength, early
metal strings seemed to break rather easily. However, string tension
used on the period instruments was low and these metal strings were
strong enough to produce gentle sound on them.
Gut (sheep gut) string were started to be used by those along the
Mediterranean in Europe. It was said to be difficult and require
special know hows to make long lasting gut strings of uniform
thickness. In a period between 18th and early 20th century, metal
strings were all the rage, due not only to their brilliant sound and
sustain, but also to the improved quality metal strings lasting much
longer than gut ones that wear and break easily (therefore, require
frequent restringings). The process of producing long lasting gut
strings, especially thin gauge ones, was a heavily guarded secret.
There might be manufacturers that supplied high quality gut strings
steadily at some time. However, I would guess that the quality of gut
strings can become inferior when the secret was not transfered in its
entirety.
5 different metal known to be used as musical instrument strings by
18th century are gold, silver, copper, iron, and brass. Bronze wire
was also used in 17th century and steel wire had been used since
1834. Then, plated and coated wires joined the group and many of them
are still produced today. Steel strings tend to have strong but
sometime a little rough tone and bronze ones rather soft tone. But
tone characteristics and durability of strings change by plating and
coating on them. For example, brass wires develop rust even when they
were unused.
Metal wire wound strings
"L'Encyclopedie Diderot & D'Alembert" published in 1758
features a print showing a process of producing metal wire wound
strings. Therefore, they should have been in use before that,
although the materials used were not known. The earlier metal wound
used either gut or silk core on which wire is wound. Some (also
mentioned in Aquila's web site) said that metal wound strings existed
even in mid 1600's. Flexibility of the core material is an important
factor on sound of the metal wound strings. To produce these for bass
strings, it easy to wind wire on a thick gut core to get necessary
density. But the sound of them seemed to be unattractive due to their
inflexible characteristics. This had continued till more flexible
core material than metal being introduced in the late 17th
century.
In the late 17th century, natural silk had been used as core material
in medieval Europe. By winding wire on a core of many thin fibers
twised togather, the desired flexibility had been achieved rather
than using a thick gut core. As a matter of fact, cat line, a rope
shaped string, had been invented to achieve the flexibility. At the
period, metal wire was wound over a thin bundle of silk fibers under
tension by hand, similar to the gut string making process. Processes
of producing thin metal wire had established and mass production of
them started in late 17th century, also.
Silk cored metal wound strings were hailed by player of the time, but
it was difficult to produce very thin strings due to hygroscopic and
stretchy nature of silk. After 1946, synthetic fibers like nylon are
used for core material and great improvements were achieved on
strength, durability, and insusceptibility of humidity and
temperature.
While finishing this far, I find a new information on metal strings.
I will update these later.
