Well, after quite a prolonged shortage, I’ve finally got my shipment of wound strings! Look for a new batch of bowed psalteries to be listed on the main site: Phantasy Psalteries in the near future.

After having experimented with all sorts of strings during the beginning of the year, I really am leaning toward nickel-plated wound strings as my all-around favorite. (Pictured at left.) The only other string type that I’m still considering is bronze phosphor, which has a tone very similar to the nickel-wound strings, but with a slightly brighter tone; but they don’t last as long as the nickel-plated strings.

I’ve tried all sorts of variations of nylon and silver-plated copper with a nylon core, but in the end, I still feel that nickel plated steel strings are the best overall. I found that plain nylon strings were very mellow, but also extremely “picky” in terms of how they needed to be bowed, and tended to be very scratchy and screechy with the slightest variation in bowing technique.

With the sliver-plated strings with a nylon-fiber core, I found an interesting phenomenon: the string would shift its pitch downward as soon as the bow left the string. It’s my theory that this is due to the inner core being wrapped too loosely. They do have a lot of potential, but they are not without their roadblocks.