Silk strings for Western and Asian instruments now available for sale online!
Sold by LP Kaster on etsy,
https://www.etsy.com/people/LPKaster
This is the only source for traditional silk strings (as used in Asian music and as humidity-resistant alternative in the days of a gut E), available.
Since I ordered the first set for violin from him as a special order, you could simply ask for similar (note that you should specify a string length of 50', since he usually sells them as 54', which you then cut and knot). As for gut, tune them up slowly and redistribute tension by lifting while doing so. :)
Replies (7)
I should love to try a silk E!!
How do they sound, and are the low strings wound with metal?
The low strings are would in a dense silk wrap for weight (as is traditional).
Only the E on a violin is historically authentic (unless you use a medeival fiddle, in which case theu might have also used al silk).
The E has a somewhat thin and wirey sound if tuned up to A=440 (was a way to prevent a short-lived gut in humid weather), since the standard Asian pitch was usually much lower, maybe 2-3 tones down.
If you tune the strings down a tone or more they befome very rich and beautiful, but that goes with the territory of traditional Asian music, not Western. :)
On a (tourist) trip to Egypt, I was often offered rebabas with strings that seemed to be a rope of black horse-hair.
Yes, horse hair is the other common material for strings, and was a feature of places like Mongolia, which coumd not kill of a large portio of the herd or grow silkworms during travel. Instead, they gave the horses haircuts. :)
@ A.O. "horse hair is the other common material for strings",
which makes me think - what about human hair?
If it is indeed a technical possibility, then imagine the ads for new hair products we could be seeing on the screen, and the interaction with famous hair stylists!
I can't quite make up my mind whether I'm being serious on this one!
Yes, they have done it with hair cream that makes an unusually soft- sounding bow. Natural hair is too soft, and produces almost no grip.
They also strung up a violin with hair still attached to the guy's head as strings and played on it.
Both if these videos are on YT. :)
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April 5, 2017 at 04:22 PM · Bump.