Wound Strings: I have spent a lot of time, money, and research on making durable wound strings. I believe that my wound strings are among the finest wound gut strings being made. The machines I use to put the wire on the gut were made and used by the Perfection Musical String Co. They were the ones that made the old Wonder Tone, Gold Label and Tricolore strings. The cello string machine was made in about 1900 and has been making strings almost daily for nearly 100 years.
The recipes of the strings, the diameters of gut and wire, have been carefully researched to duplicate the kind of tones and tensions that were used historically. The earliest actual string I have been able to copy is from about 1820.
Three types of wire are currently being used in wound string production. Silver, silver-plated copper, and aluminum. Strings are either all silver, all silver plate, or all aluminum. The one exception is the Classic Tone silver/aluminum violin d-3. The silver that I use is 99.99% pure wire that is drawn down to my specifications for each type of string. Silver and aluminum strings are polished so the surface of the string is smooth. Silver plate strings retain the round ridges of the wire. Wound strings are used for:
Violin: G-4
Viola: G-3 and C-4
Cello: G-3 and C-4
Bass viol: G-5, D-6 and A-7
Tenor viol: C-5 and G-6
Treble viol: G-5, and D-6
Lute: G-6 and lower fundamentals
Gauges of wound strings can be found on the pages describing the Academie and Classic Tone lines of strings. Please consult these pages for information about a specific string.
Academie Strings Classic Tone Strings