Howe - Orme guitar

[George Roberts]

I have a Howe - Orme guitar with a patent date on the end of the peghead  of 13 FEB 94.  My question is what kind of strings would it have been meant for at that time?  I seem to remember that steel string didn't come into common usage until the late 1890s.  Should I play it safe with "gut strings" or try extra light steel?

On a related topic, does anyone know the relative amount of tension produced by nylon (Aquila Nylgut), Silk and Steel, or Extra light steel strings?

Many thanks for the help, George

[Mark McLean]

Hi George

String tension calculation is made easy at these two websites:

https://www.daddario.com/string-tension-pro (has many types of string options)

https://tension.stringjoy.com/  (seems to be only steel strings)

Howe-Orme made some great guitars.  I would really love one of their "cylinder top" designs, and the ones with adjustable necks were very cool and advanced for their day.  

[George Roberts]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for your kind reply.  I actually have 2 Howe - Orme guitars.  One is a little bigger than 00 size and has beautiful BRW back and sides.  The other is 000 size with mahogany back and sides.  Both have the adjustable neck. I finally strung up the smaller one with 9-42 strings, with an unwound 3rd.  It sounds great.  The slots in the nut a quite wide, though, which makes me wonder if it had gut strings to begin with.  I'm thinking I should try it with low tension Aquila strings.  I've had some of their strings on a couple of very early banjos, and have been very impressed with the results.

George

[George Roberts]

In the  "for what its worth" category, I tried the guitar with light Aquila strings, and it sounds even better than with the "ultra light" steel strings.  And hopefully there will be less tension on the neck and body.

George