Quote Originally Posted by HUGH View Post
I have seen gut strings being made, directly at a freezing plant. It required a specialist, in this case a gnome-like character who twisted the gut according to the section of intestine it came from. His apprentice, much younger, started on stretching and making condoms from the same intestines. The old fellow told us some Germans preferred the gut variety rather than latex. Was he pulling our legs or is it true?
Anyway it seems that manufacturing gut strings is a specialist job like many others which are dying out.
Hmmm... Not to sure of which is better, the latex or the gut prophylactics. I remember reading that historically the gut condoms were the first available and latex came along much later. Otherwise I have no idea which gives the bigger bang for the buck...LOL. :)

As far as the violin strings go there are two types. The most popular is the "gut core" types where the gut is tightly would to form a string and then the gut core is wrapped in silver, aluminium or gold Less common (and harder to find) are the pure unwound gut strings. The latter are preferred by some very dedicated baroque style musicians who want to capture that authentic period style and sound. Often they will even have their instruments altered to even further affect that early baroque style.