What sort of wound strings were in use in the 17th to 19th centuries?
Three sorts: – Close wound: the single wire spires are tightly wound touching one another. It is the still commonly used sort. – Double wound: a second close wound layer is laid over the first one. Because of the large quantity of metal wound on the gut core they were employed on instruments with a short string length but requiring a low tuning, e.g. violoncello da spalla, 5th double bass string &c. – Open wound: the single wire was wound so that the spires would not touch one another but with a space in between equal or slightly wider than the wire diameter (see F. le Cocq, Paris 1724); these strings were in use exclusively in the in 18th century as transition between plain gut mid-register and close wound basses, e.g. Bass viol 4th, violin 3rd &c.
