Nylgut尼龍羊腸弦吊牌在說什麼？Tag of Aquila New Nylgut Strings

你的烏克麗麗琴弦到底是羊腸弦還是仿羊腸弦呢？讓我們來看看Nylgut吊牌怎麼說：

Until the mid 20th century most of the plucked instrument strings were made with gut, a material that combines excellent promtness of attack and interesting performances, very different, in other worlds, than those of the common Nylon strings.

A foundamental aim of our research has therefore been to develop a new product having the same performances of gut without its typical defects such as high cost, short lifetime and tuning instability under moisture changes. The New Nylgut has all these qualities allow one, on the one hand, to rediscover the original performances guaranteeing a tuning stability even better than the best Nylon strings.

直至20世紀，大部份撥弦式樂器仍用天然羊腸作為琴弦，羊腸弦能清楚反應彈奏的樂音，因此演奏時更能享受一般尼龍弦所沒有之樂趣。

我公司製弦目標是保留羊腸弦優點，改善天然材料本身之缺陷，如：高成本、不耐用、易因環境水氣改變而走音，新開發之尼龍羊腸弦(Nylgut= nylon + gut)即基於以上目標所製造完成，能使琴弦保持在音準狀態，更甚於高級尼龍弦。

若仔細閱讀其中英文，可以發現兩個錯字promtness→ promptness與foundamental→ fundamental ，本想說是不是買到劣質工廠作的冒牌琴弦，好歹也是個標榜Made in Italy牌子，雖過往接觸義大利客戶的經驗，必須承認…其英文發音和鄰近的日本很像，但對於這種放在檯面上的訊息，應該不可能犯砸門面的錯誤吧，寫信去Aquila詢問，得到的回覆是：

"Unfortunately there are some mistake in the language.anyway, thank you very much for your kind support"

當下對Aquila這牌子的信心有減少了20%…至少！

(Nylgut的吊牌不僅止於此種，據Aquila的說法是型號不同，至於是差在哪裡呢，待彰化特派員繼續查察…。)


1. 看看Wikipedia怎麼說：

Catgut

Sheep, beef, and other animal gut (called catgut, though cats were never used) were the original core materials for violin family strings. Catgut strings are generally unreliable over an extended period of time. Animal intestines are made up of covalent bonds. The intestines behave like elastomers, meaning they are very flexible. But as the string ages and continually responds to changes in temperature and humidity they can become dry, weak, and brittle over time. This makes them go out of tune and break easier than other core materials. However, even after the introduction of metal and synthetic core materials, many musicians still use gut strings, believing that they provide a superior tone. Players who perform ancient music or on historical instruments often prefer gut strings as historically accurate. Modern gut strings are usually wrapped in metal.

For players of plucked instruments, Nylgut strings are a recently developed alternative to gut strings. They are made from a specialty nylon and purport to offer the same acoustic properties as gut strings without the tuning problems.

無論是羊腸、牛腸或其他動物腸子統稱為腸弦catgut，(但貓腸cat+gut從未被琴弦所使用)，腸弦因富有彈性，過往常被作為提琴類樂器琴弦之主要材料，缺點為亦老化，相較其他材料，亦受溫溼渡影響，而變得乾化、脆化、脆弱，進而造成音不準甚至斷裂，但即使有了金屬與合成材質的琴弦後，許多音樂家仍偏好腸弦，喜愛其音色表現，有些表演者彈奏舊時樂曲或樂器時，仍會選擇腸弦，以更精準呈現過往音樂之氛圍。

尼龍羊腸弦(仿羊腸弦)近幾年已取代羊腸弦，結合羊腸與尼龍弦優點，並改善易走音問題。

2. 那Nylgut到底是由什麼材料作成？看看別的網站怎麼說：

Ukulele Strings in the Past, Present andFuture: Chapter 3

The material of a Nylon family was presumed since the word NYLGUT starts with Nyl-. But according to the sales representative, it is a material with density higher than Nylon, (for this reason, it sustains the same pitch with a gauge thinner than nylon), and it is similar to the material currently used for the dashboard of a motor vehicle.

As a result of finding in the technical books of a plastic, Matt concluded that the material is possibly POM: Polyoxymethylene (widely known as Polyacetal), a completely different plastic from Nylon. Since the density of Polyacetal is 1.41, a little more than 20% heavier than Nylon, which has a density of 1.14, and the material color is white and is used for the interior of a car, it is presumed to be true.

Nylgut原先被認為是使用尼龍(nylon)材料製成，因其字面由Nyl構成，但根據銷售人員說法，它是一種比尼龍密度更高的材料，因此其音色比尼龍略薄，材質類似目前汽車儀表板。

在研究過塑膠類書籍後，Matt認為此材料可能是Polyoxymethylene(更常被稱為Polyacetal)，一種完全不同於尼龍的材質，因為Polyacetal密度是1.41，比尼龍1.14多了約20%，且其顏色是白色，被使用於車子內部中，故被推測是Polyacetal。

若以上屬實，尼龍羊腸弦即為"仿"羊腸弦之合成(synthetic)材料，不具有羊腸成份，淘汰羊腸弦缺點保留其優點所作成。這故事還滿像GraphTech的Nubone弦枕，特性似牛骨，但非牛骨，嗯嗯~有趣的文字遊戲！


4. 關於羊腸弦的歷史與製作說明，他怎麼說：

Making Gut Strings by Daniel Larson

For thousands of years, the choices of musical string materials were few. Usually it was limited to some indigenous material that was either suitable or adapted to the task. If you lived in the East the logical choice would be silk where the fibers were processed, twisted and braided into musical purity. Horse hair would be used if you lived in Scandinavia. In the more tropical regions plant fibers would be twisted and spun into a cord for use as a musical string. The European West chose an equally unlikely material for use as strings - animal intestines.

 No one knows exactly when gut was first used for musical strings. Legend has it that Apollo was the first string maker. When he came across the tortoise and had the inspiration to make the first lyre, he used the poor animal's own intestines for the strings. The first actual proof of the use of gut strings came in 1823 when Burton discovered some of the earliest extant musical instruments in the tombs of Thebes. These harps had gut strings that, according to his account, still made a tone after some two thousand years in storage(1).

So, gut has been the traditional material for strings in the West and still defines the standard of violin tone. The highest praise that can be lavished on one of the new, synthetic strings is that it sounds "as warm as a gut string". But what exactly is a gut string?

Gut strings are made from the small intestines of sheep. The process can be broken down into four basic steps:

1. Slaughter and recovery at the abattoir. 

2. Dressing and selection.

3. String processing and twisting.

4. Drying and polishing

5. Wire winding. (Optional step).

幾千年以來，製弦材料就非常少，人們通常使用當地適合或加工過的材料作為琴弦，在東方，人們常將絲稠纖維加工過，捻成辮子形狀，作為琴弦；歐洲斯堪地那維亞地區使用馬匹毛髮作琴弦；熱帶地區使用植物纖維；西歐則使用動物腸子。所以羊腸一直以來是西方傳統的製弦材料，且奠定了小提琴經典音色，而評價極高之合成琴弦，常被形容有如羊腸弦之飽暖音色，但何謂羊腸弦？

羊腸弦從何時開始使用已無從考，傳說太陽神阿波羅是第一個製弦家，其有名的七弦豎琴靈感來自於烏龜，並使用動物腸子作為琴弦，最早發現使用羊腸作為樂器琴弦的証據，可追朔至1823年，Burton於底比斯墓地找到現今仍有使用之Harp弦樂器，其琴弦即羊腸材料，據文獻記載，當時羊腸弦雖已於墓地中幾千年，但當時仍能發出聲音。

羊腸是由羊小腸部位取得，製作過程大致分為以下4個基本步驟：
1. 主要為屠宰牲口取得羊腸後，去除脂肪與糞便，置於流動水中以維持腸衣顏色與強度。
2. 主要為泡水軟化、去除黏膜、取得乾淨腸衣、依品質分類、裝束並置於鹽中。
3. 主要為去鹽、拉直使張力平均、白化、纏繞。

4. 乾燥與拋光。

5. 外部金屬弦線包覆(選擇性使用)。

以下影片部份內容應可幫助文字說明較不易理解部份：

(連結的網站皆有更詳細的資料說明，有探究精神者，請繼續前往發掘)