The research on string diameters used in the past is a relatively recent discipline compared to the rediscovery of repertoires played today with original instruments or copies / hybrids.
Until a few years ago it was – and it is still valid today – in fact commonly believed that the diameters used in the past were quite thin. The instruments dedicated to ancient music are therefore for the most part still calibrated according to this type of diameters. In particular, the angle formed by the strings on the bridge is in many cases rather acute, very similar to those of modern stringed instruments.
The adoption of truly historic calibres on this type of instrument – which are the majority – would have led to serious problems in the quality of the sound produced and in the ease of emission.
We have therefore decided to make our string frames in this way: on the one hand, by proposing (in the light, medium heavy tension degrees) those series of traditional diameters – even if not historically documented – that are generally adopted today, and on the other hand, by proposing frames that refer to the historical information that has survived, while at the same time making it clear which modifications are necessary in order to have access to these types of gauges that make the instrument certainly richer, easier to issue, of stable intonation and with a longer duration of the strings (as well as being in line with the historically documented criteria).
Vivi Felice