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| The glossary provides additional information about the contents within the early instrument string section of our site. After viewing the glossary topics, return to the page from which you came via the link "RETURN TO STORE" at the top of this page. |
ABBREVIATIONS
| STRING MATERIALS |
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VG | |
Varnished Gut-polished high twisted gut |
| PG | Plain Gut-unvarnished high twisted gut | ||
| RN | Rectified Nylon-polished with the textured feel of gut | ||
| WC | Copper Wound-pure copper wire spun over a nylon filament core | ||
| WB | Bronze Wound-pure bronze wire spun over a nylon filament core | ||
| WS | Silver plated Wound-silver plated copper wire spun over a nylon filament core | ||
| WA | Aluminum Wound-aluminum wire spun over a nylon filament core | ||
| SWG | Silver Wrapped Gut-Silver plated wrap wound over a gut core | ||
| AWG | Aluminum Wrapped Gut -Aluminum wound over a gut core | ||
| MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS |
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AL | |
Alto Lute (alto size pitched in A) |
| HPAL | High Pitched Alto Lute (small tenor size pitched in A) | ||
| LPAL | Low Pitched Alto Lute (small tenor size pitched in G ) | ||
| TL | Tenor Lute (tenor size pitched in G ) | ||
| BL | Baroque Lute (d minor tuning) | ||
| ThCh | Theorbo or Chitarrone | ||
| RG | Renaissance Guitar (small size pitched in A) | ||
| Vsm | Vihuela (small size alto pitched in A) | ||
| Vlg | Vihuela (large size tenor pitched in G ) | ||
| BGmt | Baroque Guitar (medium tension pitched in E ) | ||
| BGht | Baroque Guitar (high tension pitched in E ) | ||
| ERG | Early Romantic Guitar (medium tension) | ||
| RTG | Romantic Terz Guitar (medium tension pitched in G ) | ||
| LRG | Late Romantic Guitar (high tension) Antique 411 | ||
| TrVG | Treble Viola da Gamba (medium tension) | ||
| VG-1 | Treble Viola da Gamba (medium high tension) | ||
| TeVG | Tenor Viola da Gamba (medium tension) | ||
| VG-2 | Tenor Viola da Gamba (medium high tension) | ||
| BVG | Bass Viola da Gamba (medium tension) | ||
| VG-3 | Bass Viola da Gamba (medium high tension) | ||
| CBVG | Contra-Bass Viola da Gamba (medium tension) | ||
| VG-4 | Contra-Bass Viola da Gamba (medium high tension) | ||
DEFINITIONS
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| Originally having references to the pipe organ, these terms have been borrowed by string players. Both mensur and diapason have meant different things at various times. Thomas Mace's Musick's Monument (London,1676) is one of the earliest sources referring to these terms.
Mensur refers to the vibrating string length (from the nut to the bridge or saddle) of all stringed instruments-the part of the string that runs over the fingerboard. Diapasons are the the extra bass strings that float from the bridge to a nut on an extra pegbox. These harp like basses are commonly found on the archlute, theorbo or the baroque lute as gut or overspun strings. |
MEASUREMENTS
| Determining gauges from one string to another using the same material:
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| Moving a Perfect 4th, a string's pitch is altered by 1/4 of its length.
To maintain the same mensur the diameter is modified: |
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moving down a Perfect 4th - 1.33 or 4/3 x 1st string's diameter = 2nd string moving up a Perfect 4th - .75 or 3/4 x 2nd string's diameter = 1st string |
| Moving a Major 3rd the string's pitch is altered by 1/5 of its length.
To maintain the same mensur the diameter is modified: |
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moving down a Major 3rd -1.25 or 5/4 x 2nd string's diameter = 3rd string moving up a Major 3rd - .80 or 4/5 x 3rd string's diameter = 2nd string |
| All string tensions in this site represent only the measurements of individual strings.
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1 inch = 2.54 cm millimeters divided by 2.54 = inches inches mutiplied by 2.54 = millimeters lbs. divided by 2.2 = kilos. kilos. mutiplied by 2.2 = lbs. |