Musical strings need to be attached to the instrument, and the traditional technique to accomplish this is a knot at the end to hold it in the tailpiece (instructions for tying a unique knot developed by Gamut Music are on every Academie package). But, the repetitive task of tying knots has taken its toll on the hands of our workshop staff over the years, and being a small shop, changes to production must be considered occasionally to make the best use of our most precious resource: Time.

Therefore, we have devised a better solution to the knot: a 3-D printed plastic ball end. This stopper will secure the string at the tailpiece with ease and elegance without the need of a knot. 

Design and testing are complete, and we will be phasing out the old string knot and washer options starting with violin strings. Tricolore strings will come with a ball end by default, and most Academie strings will have the option to include a ball end. Gamut leather string washers will still be available for purchased by the dozen, but they will no longer be available as an included string option.

We hope that this innovation will prove useful to players who, like us, are also tired of tying string knots; and the discontinuation of knotted ends will be a great time-saver, allowing us to more focus our efforts on producing high quality, hand-made gut music strings.