Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 174
Scan 174
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
26 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 148. See the scan on archive.org.
1Finishing the Strings
3After having been polished, the strings are well wiped, and are then lightly covered with olive oil of the best quality. Some manufacturers regard this last operation as harmful, owing to the ease with which oil turns rancid. This disadvantage, however, may be rectified by adding 1/10 its weight of laurel oil to the olive oil.
5When the strings have been passed through the oil, they are carried to the drying stove, so that they may be dried perfectly. They may be considered thoroughly dry when, after having been taken from one of the pegs, they do not snap back upon themselves.
7Once dried, the strings are cut close to the pegs. There only remains, after this, to roll them in circles by means of a cylinder roll mold, to attach them one to another, and, finally, to collect them in bundles of thirty, in the case of fine strings, or half-bundles of fifteen, for those which are coarse.
9This section should not close without a word having been said with regard to the number of guts which are used in the manufacture of the various sorts of strings. The number not only varies according to the strings themselves, but also according to the individual manufacturer. We might quote as a generally adopted standard the number used by the maker, Henry Savarnesse.
11The E string or chanterelle is composed of four, five or six threads, according to the size of the gut itself, and each thread is formed of half a gut, longitudinally divided. The A string, like the E, has four threads (or three) but stronger ones than those of the E, which are very fine. The D string has from 6 to seven threads.
13For guitar strings threads finer than those used for the violin are employed.
15Violoncello strings have as many as ten full threads, and those of the harp as many as twenty-two, also full.
17Violoncello strings have six threads for the chanterelle, and ten for the D string.
19Finally, the strings of the double bass have forty threads for the E string, and as many as eighty-five for the D string.
21External Indications of Good Strings
23How is one to tell at first sight whether a violin string is good or not?
25"The E string," declares Savarnesse, "should be transparent, perfectly rounded and quite regular in size. It should not be too white, since this is a sign that it has been made of the gut of too young a lamb, and when a bundle of E strings are pressed together in the hand, the strings should have an elastic feel, and should spring back just as a thin steel rod would. It is possible to make strings stiff by using aluminum salts in their manufacture, yet such strings are apt to snap when the bundle is pressed, for they are
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.