Pirastro Bass Gamba – A7 Gut/Silver 39 1/2

Bass (Tenor)-Gamba
Strings made from sheep gut have been mentioned in the history of string instruments since earliest times. While nomadic peoples used tendons and horse hair following the finding of an Egyptian lute from 1500 BC we know that the Egyptians had already mastered the techniques of gut string manufacturing.

It is possible that a gut rope made of thin twisted gut filaments was used for the lower strings in the later centuries.

The metal wound strings which we use today did not start to be developed until the middle of the 17th century at the time of Stradivarius.

To offer you this authentic stringing at today?s high quality we have reconstructed these developments and incorporated them into our gamba string program.

Fundamentally even today it is still possible to use plain gut strings for the lowest strings of the gamba however the stiffness and thickness of the mono-filament of the gut string is a considerable impairment to playability of the deeper notes.

It is only since 1660 that spinning with copper has evolved. However the most popular winding is silver-plated copper wire which has the advantage of the silver coating combined with the sound quality of the copper string.

For studio takes we recommend silver wound gut string with a polished surface. They are quiet even as your fingers change position on the fingerboard. However it has only been possible to manufacture this sort of string since the 20th century.