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An Explanation of Leather String Washers

Leather washers help to keep the string knot from marking an indentation on the underside of a historical tailpiece, or when used with a modern tailpiece, they help to keep the string knot from pulling through the string slot.

The washers with the 3.80mm outside diameter are intended for smaller instruments such as violins, treble viols and so on. The washers with the 5.00mm diameter are designed for larges instruments like the cello and bass viol. Of course, you are welcome to use any size on any instrument.

When choosing the hole size, select the one that is the same as the diameter of the string you want to use it on, or a little larger than the intended string.

We sell leather washers for all strings that accommodate them, as well as in packages of one dozen.

What Are Those Little Black Squares That Came With My String??

Those little black squares are anti-tarnish strips put in the envelopes of strings wound in sterling silver to avoid tarnish. Sterling tarnishes, turning black-ish in color, and cosmetically looks bad. The anti-tarnish strips react to hydrogen sulfide and other tarnish-causing gases to neutralize them. If the silver string tarnishes it is still perfectly fine, but these little squares help prevent tarnish.

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Hand-made in the USA by Gamut Music, Inc., a leader in the revival of early music strings and instruments. Gut strings are not intended to be used with fine tuners or string adjusters, and those devices should be removed before installing the gut string on the instrument.

All Gamut Academie strings (pure gut and gut/metal-wound) are made with beef serosa unless they specifically say "Sheep Gut." All pure gut Tricolore violin and viola strings are made with sheep gut; gut/metal-wound Tricolore and all Red Diamond strings are made with beef serosa.

Gamut gut string gauges are approximate (≈) diameter. Meaning, that while a ≈0.60mm string is polished in the workshop to a diameter of 0.60mm, changes in ambient humidity, temperature, shipping, and storage conditions can cause to string to expand or contract slightly.

Gimped gut strings and custom gauged equal tension strings are gauged with the equivalent-gauge (=) system. This means that the gauge listed, such as =1.50mm, indicates that the string is approximately equal in weight to a plain gut string of that diameter. Of course, because the wire is much heavier than gut, the string will be much thinner than a plain gut string.

More information about Gamut gut strings, string types, gauges, and string tensions can be found on our FAQ/Articles page. Not finding an answer to your question? Please contact us directly: support@gamutmusic.com.