How to properly install Aquila gut strings on a baroque Violin

[@VielleVintageVibrations]

I can't believe I've been doing this wrong for so long. Thanks for the helpful video!

[@AquilaStrings]

Thank you 🙃

[@GhostTrucking545]

I've been trying to f I nd that old sound and I've found it in gut strings. I've played my friends violin and it had gut so I had to get a set. This is so helpful for me

[@lawrence18uk]

Looks like a bowline knot there - greatest knot in the world! :-D

[@lawrence18uk]

So, the A and E both require loops, but the G and D are thick enough for the knot to jam in the tail-piece hole?

[@gensoustudio6270]

A doesn't, nor does E, it's optional. I think it's something important for E to reduce problems, also looks nice, but A is totally fine without it.

[@AndreaRuoccomusic]

Salve! Per caso create anche corde per guembri?

[@AquilaStrings]

no. ci dispiace.

[@jacc88888]

Seems very secure but do you have a quicker way of putting on a string in a hurry? There is no way I could do all this under pressure in a middle of a concert if a string went!

[@tiorbinist]

It is a standard bowline knot (used in seamanship for millennia and taught to scouts for a century. It is possible to use some mnemonics (make a loop, the mole comes out of the hole and goes around the tree and back into the hole, better seen than just heard). As it happens there are plenty of videos showing how to make a bowline knot in a hurry, and practice makes perfect. In my experience (I use this knot on the top strings of my baroque french viol), it takes far less time to make and cinch the bowline knot, and because it is not any kind of slip-knot or overhand-knot around the main body of the string, it settles in much more quickly than the usual approaches. But as you know, you're probably never going to have a gut string (beef or sheep serosa) replacement that can be pulled up and instantly stays in tune. It takes a little while for gut to settle into the knot, and, being made from living, hygro-sensitive material, always is changing as humidity does. It occurs to me that the amount of tension on the E-string hole for a baroque violin is far less than any metal-content or wound modern E-string, so it should be possible to have your luthier saw a slot, making it possible to slip a pre-tied e-string into place from the side. The slot could even have a fitting with the top laminated with the same material as your tailpiece, so it's all but invisible when in place. Obviously, testing this with an appropriate piece of wood would be wise before cutting your tailpiece! But if that can be done, you could also get a piece of wood with slotted holes and matching tuning pegs, string up a couple of e-strings and keep them at tension until needed. Then, when you break a string, just slip the old parts out, loosen one of your spares and slide it off the form, and string up without having to make the knot under pressure. Since we can all lower our strings and pull them back up without them taking days to acclimate (I often drop my top two strings by a whole tone or two in the fall and spring when Connecticut weather is insane to keep them from breaking in the case!) this should get you back in action better than anything else I can think of. (OK, maybe not: if you strung your violin from pegs placed through the string holes, placing them to the tailpiece would just require sliding the loop around the peg (underneath the tailpiece, since you don't want to be playing a frankinviolin in a HIP performance!) Of course, it's notally non-historical, but there is a balance point between HIP and the rigors of modern performance that everyone eventually finds. Coloring the upper end of the insert the same as the tailpiece upper surface and the part protruding beneath the same shade as the top plate of the Violin might even prevent anyone from realizing what you're doing. 8^)

[@jacc88888]

@ Thanks very much for your in-depth reply! Lots of things here that you’ve written that I’d like to look into. Particularly the slot in the tailpiece idea. In the meantime I’ll look at some videos on how to tie a bowline knot! Thanks again!

[@oreodog]

My E broke at the bowline after a few days. Maybe I’m unlucky, or tied it too tight. The A is working great though with this same method.

[@AquilaStrings]

Thank you for the feedback! If you need some suggestions or replacement write to [e-mail]

[@181960will]

What is the violin? Just curious.

[@AquilaStrings]

This is the old violin of Aquila owner Mimmo's grandfather :)

[@181960will]

@@AquilaStrings Very nice. Looks like a French Didier Nicolas l'aîné violin.

[@ktaarnia]

Ewwww why are the pegs creaking, use some peg paste

[@gensoustudio6270]

lol it is an ugly sound isn't it?

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

@@gensoustudio6270 Fg reds solve that problem

[@gensoustudio6270]

@@RockStarOscarStern634 what are Fg reds? Never heard of them.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

@@gensoustudio6270 Synthetic Strings.

[@gensoustudio6270]

@@RockStarOscarStern634 Those the ones you gotta put rosin on?