On string instruments that the player plucks or bows directly (e.g., double bass), this enabled instrument makers to use thinner strings for the lowest-pitched strings, which made the lower-pitch strings easier to play. This enabled stringed instruments to be made with less thick bass strings. The invention of wound strings, such as nylon covered in wound metal, was a crucial step in string instrument technology, because a metal-wound string can produce a lower pitch than a catgut string of similar thickness.
This is to make the string vibrate at the desired pitch, while maintaining a low profile and sufficient flexibility for playability. Strings may be 'plain', consisting only of a single material, like steel, nylon, or gut, or wound, having a 'core' of one material and an overwinding of another. Strings are lengths of a flexible material that a musical instrument holds under tension so that they can vibrate freely, but controllably. Flatwound strings on a fretless bass guitarĪ string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments such as the guitar, harp, piano ( piano wire), and members of the violin family.
