Natural Gut Strings

Does anyone here regularly use strings made of natural gut? I just bought a set of Aquilas, and put them on my Martin Style 1. So far I am VERY impressed. The sound is clear, clean, and loud. Much nicer than the Nylgut strings that they replaced, although not quite as loud.

I've used them on my Martin O and found that they were wonderful in terms of tone and volume. Intonation proved to be a difficulty, which was always something I understood would be a problem with the C string, and it was. I eventually replaced them with Worth clear mediums when they lost their zing, which took about nine months. Not bad at all -

however, I've had a set of Aquila natural guts on my Maybell model 20 banjo uke and they've lasted about a year with little appreciable loss in tone. Also, no intonation problems of any kind with this uke, which has extremely low action. Frankly, I don't think anything sounds quite as good as a banjo uke with gut strings. Just amazing.

Thanks John,

Any other ukers using gut? Is it really that uncommon to use natural gut these days?

BTW what poor critter species gets its guts used for instrument strings these days

allanr said:

Any other ukers using gut? Is it really that uncommon to use natural gut these days?

BTW what poor critter species gets its guts used for instrument strings these days

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While often referred to as "catgut" I believe most gut strings are made from the intestines of sheep or cows.

And there's a reason why natural gut is not very popular these days. Nylon/synthetic strings are generally considered superior in terms of manufacturing consistency, intonation and durability. Not to mention price.

Who makes, or where can you buy gut strings?

I'm thinking of getting a soprano soon, just for chordal songs, and was thinking of trying gut strings on it.

Aquila has some natural gut strings

Best price I've seen is Elderly's:

http://elderly.com/accessories/items/AGSR.htm

Is aquilla the only one? I'm an Aquila dealer, so I can order those direct. Was wondering if anyone else makes them right now?

The ones that I bought were from Aquila. Bought them on EBay from Dr. Cluck.