# Spider Silk Violin Strings



## vampiregenocide (Mar 7, 2012)

BBC News - Spider silk spun into violin strings

This is awesome, and I hope it gets applied to more instruments! I would love to try some spider silk guitar strings.


----------



## Necris (Mar 7, 2012)

I have a feeling that it would be far more expensive to the point of being prohibitive. Considering violin strings can range from $15 to $65 for a regular set. I'd imagine the process for obtaining silk one strand at a time from spiders (the article mentions up to 15,000 strands per string) and then creating strings from it would cost two or three (or more) times as much as the most expensive standard strings. Scale it up to something that would be useable at a guitars scale length and average and the price would be ridiculously high.


----------



## TemjinStrife (Mar 7, 2012)

Except they're not ferrous, so they don't work with magnetic pickups.


----------



## vampiregenocide (Mar 7, 2012)

Necris said:


> I have a feeling that it would be far more expensive to the point of being prohibitive. Considering violin strings can range from $15 to $65 for a regular set. I'd imagine the process for obtaining silk one strand at a time from spiders (the article mentions up to 15,000 strands per string) and then creating strings from it would cost two or three (or more) times as much as the most expensive standard strings. Scale it up to something that would be useable at a guitars scale length and average and the price would be ridiculously high.



Yeah, but eventually the technology will make things easier to produce. They'll find a way to make it more financially and commercially viable. 



TemjinStrife said:


> Except they're not ferrous, so they don't work with magnetic pickups.



True, but they'd work with acoustic guitars.


----------



## Necris (Mar 7, 2012)

vampiregenocide said:


> Yeah, but eventually the technology will make things easier to produce. They'll find a way to make it more financially and commercially viable.


Spider silk has been successfully synthesised in the past but from what I gather it isn't comparable in strength to that of the Golden Orb Weaving spiders (the kind used to make those strings). So right now they obtain the silk by using an apparatus that forcibly causes them to produce silk. 

Until someone can synthesize Golden Orb Weaver silk specifically and in large quantities the amount produced is entirely dependent on the spiders ability to produce silk and not the technology used.

It would be awesome to hear how they sound on a guitar though.


----------



## vampiregenocide (Mar 7, 2012)

Nah the technology isn't there to make it viable yet, but it's a start. Hopefully we can synthesise it to a decent level in time, I know they've got good results from GM goats. One day maybe we'll be able to buy some Elixir Spider-silk Lights.


----------



## Hemi-Powered Drone (Mar 9, 2012)

I wonder how a bow would sound...



Necris said:


> I have a feeling that it would be far more expensive to the point of being prohibitive. Considering violin strings can range from $15 to $65 for a regular set. I'd imagine the process for obtaining silk one strand at a time from spiders (the article mentions up to 15,000 strands per string) and then creating strings from it would cost two or three (or more) times as much as the most expensive standard strings. Scale it up to something that would be useable at a guitars scale length and average and the price would be ridiculously high.



You don't buy new violin strings all that often, so it won't be too big a deal if they're a tad expensive.


----------



## AngstRiddenDreams (Mar 12, 2012)

I want to see some of these. Sounds interesting.


----------



## Fiction (Mar 12, 2012)

Last night walking home I reckon I walked into at least 4 Violin strings worth of web


----------

