Hi folks! Mike Johnson wrote:
>
> Buffalo I'm sure would 
>not work for me, years ago I use that and didn't like it at all.
>
There's something I cannot understand! Real buffalo, which is what 
was used in the old days, (hence the term buff) is the softest, 
thickest I know of, and like Mike said earlier of his buff stops, it 
just envelops the string to give a very gentle sensual sound indeed. 

I wish I didn't live more than 3000 miles away - I'd love to see for 
myself what Mike means!

Of course, the buff on most English instruments is on the lower 8', 
which means the shorter of the two unisons since the back 8' looks 
right.  Added to which is the fact that English scalings are 
generally a little shorter than others,  so the leather HAS to be 
very soft or it would raise the pitch - a most undesireable thing! 

Having had to deal with Ormiston wire in the 70s, I am more than ever 
convinced that the reason English scaling was shorter, was that the 
available wire was weaker, not that the pitch was higher!  I'd love 
to find out about the attributes of Tintern wire, which was the most 
common wire at the time.  I wonder just how good it was!

Best!

Peter Redstone
http://www.ctg.net/redstone

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