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