Buying Baroque Guitar Strings

[Rob MacKillop]

I have a student who has recently bought a second-hand baroque guitar, and wishes to buy a set of strings, nylon or nylgut. I tried Bridgewood and Neitzert, but Tom said he couldn't help. The lady phoned the Early Music Shop, who advertise a BG set by Pyramid, but was told they didn't have any in stock and it was a big hassle ordering them.

 

String length 65cms, pitch 392 or 415. UK based. Can anyone help?

 

Rob

[Peter Sinnaeve]

I've ordered new yellow nylgut strings for my newly acquired 2nd hand baroque guitar (having nylon strings first) from  http://www.lepointdaccroche.com/ in Paris last week (the site appears to be down right now though).

I just specified length, tension and pitch and Wolfgang calculated the required strings; strings arrived safely two days later. Much better than the nylon stuff.

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

If she really wants nylon, maybe order from Just Strings ?

[Rob MacKillop]

I gave her that link, but she didn't want to order from the States. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Stuart Walsh]

I can't help. I'm just surprised that Tom Neitzert (at Bridgewood and Neitzert) wasn't able to help.

 

My Baroque guitar currently has nylgut strings from Bridgewood and Neitzert. They've also sent me nylgut strings for homemade contraptions too.

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, I was surprised too. I said ''I bought baroque guitar strings from you before'', and he said, ''No you didn't''. I didn't know what to say to that. I probably never mentioned the guitar, and just asked for specific strings.

[Michael. N.]

The Early music Shop will have the strings, just not as a set. They do Nylgut. Just understand that some of their stock is of the older White type, some of the newer 'Gut colour'. I'm guessing that the actual material is the same.

She just needs the String length, pitch, type of stringing and playing tension. That will give us the required diameters. Then she can order them as single strings. They probably have Nylon as well.

[Rob MacKillop]

I've forgotten the string tensions to ask for. Anyone have them? Let's say 415 pitch, 65 cms string length, nylgut...

[John Underhill]

I've found this very useful: Arto's New String Calculator

[Rob MacKillop]

OK, but I just got stuck on the diameters...suggestions?

 

You would think I would know all this stuff, and I have known it in the past. Just getting old and stupid :-)

 

[Michael. N.]

Tension is somewhat dependent on the individual Player. Here are my suggestions for that string length & pitch:

a - 0.7 mm

d - 0.46 mm & 1.0 mm

g - 0.78 mm

b - 0.62 mm

e - 0.48 mm

 

Assuming that type of stringing and don't forget the octaves! It should be OK to deviate from these measurements if you prefer slightly higher or lower tension.

If they don't have in stock a 0.48 mm but they do have a 0.50 mm string, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Alexander Batov]

All for nylgut (old or new):

(a'392): e' - 0.54; bb - 0.62; gg - 0.76; dd' - 0.97 / 0.52; aa - 0.66
(a'415): e' -0.52; bb -0.6; gg -0.73; dd' -0.94 / 0.5; aa -0.64

B&N would normally have most diameters in stock.

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks guys. I forgot to say it will for aa dD gg bb e'

 

I'll phone B and N again tomorrow, hopefully sounding a bit more intelligent this time. LOL!