Web Pages from times gone by - April 1999

This page is from April 1999

La Bellinear Strings - the 1999 April Fool

The Setup...

One of the problems that besets a learner of Classical Guitar is the fact that the frets get smaller and smaller as we go up the fingerboard.

This imposes a whole layer of difficulty on the instrument that is completely avoided in the piano and harp, and of course is also absent in the fairly linear spacing of the fingers on the flute and clarinet.

The R&D team at La Bella have come up with something truly remarkable. Sporting the name "La Bellinear" these strings are wound with a graduated thickness of wire that changes the mass-per-unit-length in a linear way - hence the name.

This means that the heavier end of the string (nearest the pegs) does not need to be shortened quite so much as the lighter end (nearest the 12th fret) in order to change the mass of the vibrating portion. What this means is that the frets on the neck can actually be equally spaced.

Of course, the strings are expensive to produce but there are many advantages....

• At a stroke, the guitar is easier to manufacture.
   
• At a stroke the novice, in particular, finds that the first position is just that little bit smaller and easier, the F chord is that little bit more comfortable, and ligados are that little bit easier.
   
• At a stroke the professional finds high position work easier, and the extra room removes the pulling that so often spoils intonation.
   
• At a stroke, the D string, which so often fails over Fret 2, is stronger and thicker exactly where the main weak point is found.

Coming soon at a store near you! Of course, the strings only fit a guitar with linear frets ...

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