Scan 58
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1makings being analogous to October brewings. The demand for strings made at this particular season far exceeds the supply, and notably is this the case with regard to the strings of small size, which have to bear so great a strain that if they are not made of the best material there is little chance of their endurance. To enter into a description of the various processes of the manufacture is unnecessary, as it would form a subject of little interest to the general reader; we may, therefore, conclude this brief notice of strings by a few rules to be observed in their selection.
3Endeavour to obtain strings of uniform thickness throughout; a requisite which can only be insured by careful gauging. In selecting the E strings, choose those that are most transparent; the seconds and thirds, as they are spun with several threads, are never very clear. The firsts never have more than a few threads in them, and hence, absence of transparency in their case denotes inferior material. Before putting on the first string, in particular, in order to test its purity, it will be well to adopt Spohr's method, which is to hold between the fingers of each hand a portion of the string sufficient to stretch from the bridge to the nut, and to set it in vibration. If two lines only be apparent, the string is free from falseness; if a third line be produced, the contrary conclusion must be assumed. In the case of seconds and thirds we cannot always rely upon this test, as the number of threads used in their manufacture frequently prevents
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