Varnishing old low-quality gut strings

[George700DL]

My current gut strings will soon be swapped for a better quality set, and I'm thinking about varnishing them once they come off the bass. They are plain, unvarnished, no-name strings, and a bit on the thin side. I basically have nothing to lose by experimenting with them. So out of all things, I'm considering polyurethane - it's durable and flexible. I'm thinking that these 2 characteristics is what you want here.

Any thoughts?

George

[bejoyous]

Having never played on gut but always inquisitive; why would you keep the old revarnished set around?

Would they be spares in case the new ones break or you don't like them, or are you considering doing it to extend the life of the present strings?

How does one revarnish gut strings anyway. With a vegetable oil or some type of animal fat or shellac, etc.?

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by bejoyous

Having never played on gut but always inquisitive; why would you keep the old revarnished set around?

Would they be spares in case the new ones break or you don't like them, or are you considering doing it to extend the life of the present strings?

How does one revarnish gut strings anyway. With a vegetable oil or some type of animal fat or shellac, etc.?

Both - these will definitely be spares. They were never varnished to begin with, and I suspect varnishing them would extend their life.

Also, they are a bit thinner than I like, and I think the varnish would add some mass to them. This would perhaps be my main reason.

When I say "varnish", I mean a hardening substance, so vegetable oil would not cut it. Neither would animal fat. I think shellac would be too brittle for something that is meant to move as much as strings move. So I'm leaning toward polyurethane because of its flexibility.

Again, this is for low quality no-name strings - of course I wouldn't do this to higher end strings.

George

[Marcus Johnson]

I think I remember Ken Smith doing this once. Give him a shout on his forum.

[vejesse]

Pure neatsfoot oil works well for conditioning gut strings. It's a type of animal fat that's liquid at room temperature.