Lemur's European Varnished Gut

[JAS]

Does anyone know what these strings are? What do they mean by "varnished?" Are they wrapped with anything or just plain gut? How do they bow? What is the E string like? Do they have a focused pizz sound, or are they real boomy?

[Phil Rowan]

They're similar to chorda's D and G, but the G is much thinner than the Chorda, so you may or may not like it...may be too "twangy". I used their D strings in combination with a Chorda G for a while and got pretty good results. They're just regular plain gut strings, and they're not bad for the price.

[JAS]

How is the E string? Is it too flopy? How is the sustain? Do they have a boomy sound or a focused sound? How would you compare the thickness of these strings to say Eudoxa guts? Or to a steel string? What is the feel of these strings like? Can they be played with low action? What do they meen by "varnished?" Does this help protect them from sweat and humidity effects?

[jneuman]

Originally Posted by Phil Rowan

They're similar to chorda's D and G, but the G is much thinner than the Chorda, so you may or may not like it...may be too "twangy". I used their D strings in combination with a Chorda G for a while and got pretty good results. They're just regular plain gut strings, and they're not bad for the price.

Does that mean that the Chorda guts are varnished? Is that why they seam slicker?

[Phil Rowan]

I had a Lemur plain gut A and it didn't produce any kind of tone you could hear clearly, so the E and A are no good in my opinion. They're also very thick, floppy, and just not a good idea. Stick to gut core strings for the E and A.

As for the varnishing, I'm not a string expert, but it looked to me like the Chordas and the Efrano euro guts offered by lemur were made almost the same way, except it looks like the lemur strings have more frequent twists than the chordas. But I'm thinking maybe all plain gut strings are varnished, unless I'm missing something here.

[jneuman]

Originally Posted by Phil Rowan

I had a Lemur plain gut A and it didn't produce any kind of tone you could hear clearly, so the E and A are no good in my opinion. They're also very thick, floppy, and just not a good idea. Stick to gut core strings for the E and A.

As for the varnishing, I'm not a string expert, but it looked to me like the Chordas and the Efrano euro guts offered by lemur were made almost the same way, except it looks like the lemur strings have more frequent twists than the chordas. But I'm thinking maybe all plain gut strings are varnished, unless I'm missing something here.

Phil

Some are varnished, but more common are strings that are just polished smooth. You are right about the Efrano's having a higher twist than the Chordas. The Chordas are stiffer as a result. Recently I bought an old Pirastro Gold Label plain gut G string which was about twenty years old (still sounded great BTW) and it is much closer to the Efrano albeit of a higher quality and also thicker.

JOn

[JAS]

Are these Lemur European Varnished Gut the same strings as the Clef Gut that Upton bass sells or the Efrano Guts?

[Adrian Cho]

It's interesting that this thread started here because I have been wondering the same thing myself. I currently use a Chorda G and am looking at changing to Damian Dlugolecki or Dan Larson's unwound guts on G and D. I'm using Oliv D right now. The Chorda G definitely has some type of coating that makes it smoother and requires less maintenance because the string doesn't get hairy or develop barbs. I find the arco tone nicer too. The only other unwound gut I've tried is the Efrano (Lemur G) which definitely to me, did not have the same coating on it and yes it was thinner too.

I asked Damian whether his strings were varnished and he said that they weren't. Dan Larson has it as an option. I'm still not sure if the Chordas are varnished if it is some other type of coating but in any case, I think if Damian's strings are anything like the Efranos then I'm going to go with Dan's varnished strings.