HIGH TWIST HALF RECTIFIED PLAIN GUT STRINGS

INTRODUCTION
The origin of the employment of gut to make musical strings is lost in the mists of time. Through the centuries manufacturing techniques were gradually refined until they reached the perfection unanimously recognized as the trademark of Italian and French string makers in the 17th to 19th Centuries. The purpose of our work, supported by constant research and painstaking experimentation, is to offer natural gut strings produced by modem craftsmen working in the centuries old Italian string making tradition that has been passed on from one generation to the next. We endeavor to provide you with the very best results of this practice and aim to capture the magic of sound that only gut, of all materials, can achieve.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND FIELD OF APPLICATION
Plain gut strings are the first choice for general use in high and mid registers. All strings less than 0.50mm are low twist. Strings greater than 0.50 mm in diameter are exclusively high twist and undergo a specific processing to ensure maximum elasticity and the best acoustical performance, ease of attack and long playing life, as proven by many acoustical and wear-and-tear tests.

Plain gut strings are now exclusively "half rectified" (HR). Oiled fully rectified strings are available by special order. String -varnishing is a modern treatment which was never used historically (gut strings were kept in olive or almond oil) and its sole purpose is granting a longer string playing life. But this happens at the cost of other aspects, the most important being a loss of sound quality, brightness for example, but also the bowing attack is not as efficient as with unvarnished gut. The surface of the HR strings is only partly rectified, imitating the manual polishing techique of earlier times to obtain a true string. With this method the amount of fibers damaged by the abrasive action is noticeably reduced as compared with strings rectified with modern procedures.

The advantages are: better stability against climatic changes, longer playing life and better acoustic performance. These strings best imitate historic hand- polishing in that they damage only a small amount of gut fibers as compared with current rectifying methods. Owing to the special manufacturing technique employed in the production of the half-rectified string type, the diameters in this table indicate a mean value. E.g. a 66 string indicates a possible diameter-window between 65 and 67. Strings more than 1.65 mm thick are oiled.

NOT ALL GUT STRINGS ARE ALIKE: THE DIFFERENCE IS MADE BY THE STRICT RESPECT TO THE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FOLLOWED FOR CENTURIES BY THE STRINGMAKING MASTERS.