Gut & Silk 900

1880-1946 performances

Up to the middle of the 20th century, the only available strings for guitar were plain gut for Trebles and wound on silk core for Basses. Their acoustical performance was quite different from that of modern synthetic strings. The salient characteristics were a marked tonal presence, and brightness typical of gut strings (certainly superior to plain nylon and in some respects closer to fluocarbon strings) while the silvered copper would basses, on the other hand, possessed an exquisitely vocal quality, i.e. with less sustain and not as bright as modern wound on nylon strings, and with a sound more centered on the fundamental harmonics.

Available in only one degree of tension, this set recreates the exact typical historical setting of the period of Llobet and Tàrrega, by using oiled gut strings for Trebles and silk-core wound basses, as stated by Pujol in his “Escuela Razonada de la Guitarra” of 1934.

Please note

The basses of this set are in real silk, which, being naturally produced by an insect, cannot be steadily regular in their gauge. As a consequence, it may happen that the bass strings at 12th fret may be flat or sharp to a certain extent. The limit accepted by us is of 8 cents more or less. Beyond this value, the string is considered non-compliant and it will be replaced.
Besides, we would like to remind that the degree of compensation introduced by the inclination of the bone of the bridge – which is calibrated to the modern strings with a core of Nylon- may not apply to strings with a core of natural silk.

Audio recordings

The sound of the Antonio de Torres- guitar strung with a Gut & Silk 900 set: Stefano Grondona plays three catalan folk songs by Miguel Llobet (1878-1938):

Example nr. 1 – El testament d’Amelia

Example nr. 2 – Cançò de Lladre

Example nr. 3 – La filla del Marxant