No orders shipped between Christmas and New Year's Day

The Gamut Music workshop will be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's Day so we canbe use this time to do some desparately needed maintainance. Orders may be placed through the Web Store as usual during this time, but we will not be shipping any orders from December 24 through January 1. Orders placed during this time will be mailed as soon as possible when we get back to work on Janyary 2, 2012.

Aquila Stops Gut Production

Much of the Early Music world is buzzing about the recently announced closing of gut string production at the Aquila String company in Italy and several musicians have contacted Gamut Music with concerns about the supply, quality and availability of gut strings. I would therefore like to reassure our customers with this explanation of the situation as I understand it.

Aquila posted a notice on their web site stating two reasons for the decision to stop gut string production: the first is the bad quality of raw material and the second is European and specifically Italian regulations concerning the transport and use of gut. In this posting they specifically mention beef gut and no mention is made of sheep gut, leaving us with no understanding how of these issues effect that material.

As to the first issue: It is always a struggle to find quality materials for making gut strings. The fact is that gut supply is limited at the moment. Due to general worldwide economic conditions, droughts, low agricultural prices and increased demand, there is greater pressure on the supply of raw materials but good gut is still available. Here at Gamut, we work and invest constantly to find the best material for strings and I can assure you that fine quality material is in our workshop at the moment. It is more expensive and might become more limited, but among our suppliers it is still available. I would also like to stress that markets ebb and flow and I am confident that, as conditions change, the price and availability of materials will become easier. We are just experiencing a tough time at this moment.

As to the second issue: I don’t know the specific rules that control the regulations of animal casings in Italy, but I have a general understanding of the regulations concerning the production and use of casings and serosa in the European Union and I have discussed these issue with other European string makers and gut suppliers and here is what they have told me.

In Europe there is no restriction on the trade and use of sheep gut. 
There are, however, some regulations on the use of beef serosa, but if you have a licensed Technical Plant you can transport and use beef serosa under that license without restrictions. 

My understanding from talking to others is that there may be trade restrictions in Italy because the Italian authorities want production materials to come from domestic sources rather than abroad and the regulations have more to do with Italian domestic protection than anything concerning gut specifically.

Gamut Music has plenty of quality gut in stock and we are working every day to make sure you have a reliable supply of high quality gut strings.

If you have any questions about the quality and availability of gut, please contact me at:dan@gamutmusic.com

String economics 101

Regular customers to the Gamut String Store will notice that the prices of strings have recently changed. The prices of the sheep-gut strings have gone up while the prices of the beef-gut strings have gone down. This price change is not due to any quality difference between the two strings, but rather it is because of the different ways in which the raw material is traded and a short explanation might help clear up some confusion about the price structure.

 Sheep-gut is traded on an international market as a commodity like oil, precious metals, etc. The material originates in some country like New Zealand or Australia and sold to brokers who have contracts with the producers. The material is then offered on the international market where it is bid upon by other companies who wish to purchase it for import into their local market. The price of the winning bid is dependent on the strict rules of supply and demand and thus, the price of the material can swing widely to the end buyer as the market ebbs and flows.

 As we have been told by our supplier, two events have conspired recently to drive up the cost of sheep-gut. One has been a drought in Australia that has reduced the available supply of material. The other has been the popularity of a small, spicy sausage in Japan and China. When we first started making strings we chose as our preferred material a size of casing that was not used and valued by the sausage industry and therefore we could purchase this size material for much less than other sizes of casings that were used for sausage. It is unfortunate that this spicy sausage uses the same size that we do and now we have to compete with that industry for material, which drives up the cost and reduces the available supply.

 In the last year the cost of this material has more than doubled and left us no choice but to raise the price of the resulting strings. More than that, the supply has become restricted and uncertain. We get our material from only one supplier in New Zealand, which is the only source that meets our standards of quality. We have purchased up all of this material that is available and our supplier is not sure when more will be coming in, but it will certainly be many months. We have enough stock on hand for quite a while to insure the availability of quality strings and assume that the market conditions will correct themselves in due course, but you will notice that the price of sheep-gut strings have gone up.  The prices of thicker strings have gone up more because the cost is dependent on how many gut ribbons go into the construction. Since the number of ribbons increases logarithmically as the diameter increases, the cost of the string increases proportionally.

  Beef serosa, on the other hand, has a completely different pricing structure. We purchase the material directly from the producer so there are no middlemen involved in the transaction to drive up the cost. In addition, this material is used only for string making so we don't have to compete with other industries for the supply. The result is a much lower cost that is not subject to the whims of a temperamental market.  Also, the beef serosa is available in different widths so we can purchase a wider material that has more mass that can build up the larger diameters if gut faster and thereby reduce the cost of labor, as well. All factors considered, beef serosa is a more economical material and sheep-gut and we have restructured the string prices to reflect this.

 Sheep-gut is not the only string making material that has gone up in price. Since the economy of the USA and other countries has been fragile for so long now, many people have been purchasing precious metals as an investment and as a way to shelter money. This trend has caused the price of silver to almost double in the last year, resulting in our need to raise the price of silver-wound strings. Each time we have to purchase silver wire for strings we have to pay more for the material, as we have to purchase it on the open market and whatever the price of silver is that day is the price we have to pay.


 At Gamut we are committed to offering strings to a wide range of clientele, so for those musicians who do not feel the need to make the expense of a sterling silver string we offer strings wound with nickel silver and copper wires as well as a string with one wire of silver and one wire of copper. There should be a wound string in our catalog for every price point.

New Beef gut strings

Gamut Strings has been known as a maker of sheep-gut strings for many years.  Historical sources often mention sheep gut as a material, but other sources were used for string making, as well.  For the last eight months we have been working with beef serosa, learning how to use it and refine the processing for this material.  The material we use comes from Ireland and is taken from the small intestine of the animal, (like the sheep material), but instead of the whole intestine being used as with sheep, ribbons are cut from only one side of the cattle material where the muscle fibers are the strongest and most pure. 

The customer feedback we have received indicate that beef gut stabilizes more quickly and holds pitch a little better than sheep gut.  The tone has been described as being clearer and brighter than sheep but of equal gauge.

Beef serosa has a higher tensile strength than does sheep gut, so strings from this material are useful for instruments that require extra durability.  For example, if your instrument has a longer string length which puts beyond the comfortable range for gut strings, the beef gut would be a good choice for string material as it will stand the strain a little better.

Beef gut is available as standard length, (120cm, 48"), treble gut available with either a natural or varnish finish. Natural strings are hand-rubbed with a light oil. Varnished strings have three coats of finish before being hand polished with the oil. This gut is available only in the natural color which varies from white to a pale straw hue.

Gamut beef gut strings are available in diameters of .38mm to .80mm and are considered special-use strings for instruments that require a stronger gut.

Like the Treble gut, Beef gut is processed to be a little harder than the other kinds of gut and also has a lower twist of about 15 degrees to increase the strength and is an ideal string for: 

• Violin: e-1 and a-2
• Viola: a-1
• Bass viol: d-1
• Tenor viol: g-1
• Treble viol: d-1
• Lute: g-1, d-2, a-3, and octaves on bass courses
• Harp: treble strings 

Beef gut is available in the store on this page.

Tricolore strings return

One of the most famous violin strings made in the 20^th century was the Tricolore brand and now, after many decades of being unavailable, we are pleased to offer these strings again.

This string was developed by Ray Neiner at the Perfection Musical String Co. Brunswick, IN just south of Chicago.  The machines we use at Gamut Music to wind strings were purchased from Perfection and in addition to the machines we also received the formulations that Perfection used to make their strings, including the Tricolore brand.  We have in our archives a copy of the Perfection workshop book that specifies the gauge of gut used for the cores, the size of the wires, length of the strings, and colors of the thread used for the stockings at the top and bottom of the strings.  In addition to this practical information, we also received instruction for the special curing treatment that the gut cores went through before being wound. 

An original Tricolore viola D-2 string

It is our belief that we are now able to offer and exact copy of this historical brand of musical string.  The perfection strings were available only for the violin and viola and therefore these are the strings we are making available. 

Most notably, the Tricolore string used by Jascha Heifetz and many players are interested in reproducing this tone.  The string set that Heifetz used consisted of:

e-1 – Goldbrokat  .26mm gauge

a-2 – Gut .76mm - .78mm gauge

D-2 - Gut 1.04mm – 1.06mm gauge

G-4 – Gut / Sterling silver .78mm - .80mm gauge

We have numerous Tricolore examples in our collection of antique strings and all of the violin examples fall into these gauge ranges. 

I have measured at least a dozen Tricolore strings from the early to mid 20th century and have found a range of string gauges on them.  When the Tricolore strings were originally made, manufacturers were not quite so strict about gauges as we are today and it was only machinists and engineers that had micrometers that could accurate gauges.  Therefore, there was some variability in the diameters of strings that were marketed as "Tricolore" strings.  The original Tricolore strings were not available in specific gauges, but were marketed only as "a", "d", and "G" strings with no mention or reference to gauge, diameter, or weight.  

The formulas for the strings in the Perfection Co. workshop notebook give a range of diameters, so there seems to have been no effort to make the strings to an exact specification.  In the modern age of inexpensive micrometers and an expectation that strings will be available in a range of gauges, this traditional treatment of gauges is not satisfactory.  Therefore, I have documented the gauges of strings that would have been available to Jascha Heifetz to use, for those modern players who want to try to duplicate what he would have used on his instrument, and at the same time expanded the range of gauges available for those players who require a different gauge for the best performance of their instrument.

Almost all of the original Tricolore violin G-4 strings I have measured were about .80mm in diameter, although one was about .78mm, so I have included this figure in the data, but I do not think it was representative of the average string gauge, which sems to be around .80mm.  The specifications in the Perfection notebook note diameters of core and wire that result in a combined diameter of .78mm - .80mm, so there seems to be a preference for the .80mm gauge.  When expanding the range of strings we make I decided to make strings heavier rather than lighter, because, in my experience, modern musicians prefer the heavier gauges to lighter gauges.

In addition to the plain gut strings we are also making the gut / aluminum strings as described in the Perfection workshop book.  These are available for the violin a-2 and D-3 as well as the viola a-1 and D-2.  The violin G-4 and viola G-3 and C-4 are made with sterling silver wire according to the Perfection specifications.  

One addition we have made to the original string design is the addition of a leather washer at the knot of each string.  Modern tailpieces are made with wider string slots than those of the early 20^th century and the gut knot is no longer big enough to hold the string in place.  The leather keeps the string from pulling through the tailpiece.

Find Tricolore srings in the store here

Gamut Tricolore violin G-4