A new maker of strings for early mandolin

[Eugene]

That’s right, early-music mandonerds, I’m excited. There's another kid on the sparsely populated block of fabricators of brass strings appropriate to early wire-strung mandolin types (like the earliest incarnations of our beloved Neapolitan-type instrument). I received a shipment of strings from Mr. Andrew Hartig a couple weeks ago. Because of other commitments, I didn't find time to get them onto my mandolin until this past Sunday night.

Unfortunately, at present, Andrew only works in brass and does not fabricate any overspun strings (i.e., alas, you'll have to find your plain gut and silver wound onto a multi-filament silk core elsewhere). However, my shipment did include all the brass I'll need for a little while: a couple plain-brass octave g' strings, a couple sets of plain-brass a' strings, a coil of wire for me to twist my own a' strings as I break the fragile brass, and a couple sets of twisted brass d' strings. Unfortunately, the loops did break from both a' strings as I brought them to tension. Andrew provided enough length of really good quality brass for each string that I could re-twist my own loops and slide the remaining strings down to still make full use of them. I let Andrew know of my a' string issues and don't expect he'll ever have that trouble again in the future. The plain-brass octave g' didn’t have that problem.

Particularly noteworthy are the twisted brass d' strings. Andrew twists two lengths of brass together so tightly that they simply look and feel like conventional, modern overspun strings. They are easy on the fingers, slide easily over nut for smooth tuning, and sound and feel much more consistent in crossing from plain to twisted courses than any of the more coarsely twisted brass I've used in the past. It's interesting to note that these d' strings took longer to "stretch" to a stable pitch than I expected. I suspect that is a function of the tightness of the twists, placing much of the string lengths' linearity in a more perpendicular orientation to the tension. However, the great sound and feel of these strings is really worth the trivial wait to get past that stretching period.

So, I encourage any of you who happen to be weirdo enough to feel obliged to string early mandolins as prescribed by early mandolin method books to check out Andrew Hartig Custom Strings for Period Wire-Strung Instruments. Enjoy!

[btrott]

Very exciting. Thanks for sharing, Eugene!

Barry

[Eugene]

Good to see you 'round these parts again, Barry.

[btrott]

And you as well, Eugene! I have been reading but not posting much lately. Lately playing a lot of English guitar, though I have some early mandolin shows proposed for the coming year.

[Eugene]

FYI, Andrew's strings are, of course, appropriate to English guit(t)ar too. I suspect they find more frequent use on it and similar instruments than on mandolins.

[btrott]

I had not thought of that. I have been making my own for the guittar, but it might be nice to have some ready-made as well. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Margriet]

Thank you for the information and the link. We have just set up our early Neapolitan with the beautiful strings and the very kind and useful support and suggestions of Andrew.