An Afternoon in Aquila Corde Armoniche
Working on synthetic strings for Violoncello da Spalla!
Last Friday, Alessandro and I we both had an appointment at the dentist. Our dentist is close to Vicenza, 500 mt away from Aquila Corde Armoniche, so in the afternoon, we went there to try to work on some strings for the Violoncello da Spalla. Actually, I had in mind a modern set that I had tried on a violin last October. It had not only a wonderful voice but also it was easy in pianissimo, it supported a fortissimo and had a lot of colours and different nuances. I wanted those same strings for the Violoncello da Spalla.
Unfortunately Mimmo, Aquila’s owner, didn’t remember what it was, so we came out with something completely different. I must admit it’s not the first time we had problems with communication 🙄, and it is objectively complex to describe a sound. He asked me if I wanted the sound of gut, and yes of course I wanted it. I wanted those colours, that richness of possibilities. But while I was talking of a modern set, so synthetic core, small gauges, no undesired noises, easy under the bow, he came out with a string that, I think, fully substitutes the plain gut.
We first worked on the first string, and that was superb; in very few attempts he came out with a magical string that has the sound of gut when tuned at 415, and the characteristic of modern strings (see above) when tuned at 440 (!). From there, we moved to the second, but we were short of time already. The second we went home with has, in my opinion, the same characteristics of gut, the same feeling. It has that “ch” at the beginning of the note, if one wants it, and some unwanted squeak here and there if you don’t pay attention… it is very rich and powerful, I have to say a bit more powerful than gut. It also has more or less the same gauge of gut, and the same feeling under the fingers and bow.
If you are looking for a string that feels like gut, that goes well with gut basses, and that keeps perfect stability no matter the weather or how much you are sweating, this is your string.
Below here a sample: it’s nothing more than a practising session recorded with an iPhone, no mics, with the intention to show how close to pure guts these strings can be.
The basses here are by Eliakim Boussoir, the historical set.
Disclaimer: I have not practised professionally for years, and during the past few months my hands got particularly stiff because of Lutherie's work. So you hear more ch and squeaks than I wanted. I have to start practising again seriously!
If you regularly practice with gut and manage it well, the same will apply to these strings.
I don’t know if these are the strings that you will receive if you order the red trebles on the Aquila catalogue, but if you want to buy them and you mention that you are interested in those that we tried, you’d probably get the same ones.
This newsletter is very short and not in the usual format. Sorry for this. We’re preparing something more juicy for the next issue, when we will describe you our visit to Villa Contarini, a place we’re most probably the Violoncello da Spalla was played (maybe under a different name!). Stay with us!
