Setup used on guitars between 1870 and 1946 approx.

Up to the middle of the 20th century, the only available strings for guitar were plain gut for Trebles and wound on silk core for Basses. Their acoustical performance was quite different from that of modern setups. It was characterised by a marked tonal presence and brightness, typical of the high-pitched gut strings (certainly superior to plain nylon and closer to fluocarbon strings, in a way) while, on the other hand, the silvered copper wound basses had an exquisitely vocal quality, i.e. with less sustain, with a sound more centered on the fundamental harmonics, and not as bright as modern wound strings on nylon cores are.

Available in only one degree of tension, this set recreates the exact typical historical setting of the period of Llobet and Tàrrega, by using varnished gut strings for Trebles and silk-core wound basses, as stated by Pujol in his “Escuela Razonada de la Guitarra” of 1934. The gut used for Trebles is rigid and very smooth, an exact copy of a guitar treble used by Andres Segovia that we studied.

Gut strings are varnished (before 1950 they were simply oiled): it’s a modern solution that allows for longer string life, greater tuning stability and a smooth surface, similar to modern plastic strings.