I am working on a Siter, which (no baby sitter puns please) is a small table harp sometimes used as part of a Gamelan.
It uses 21 strings on each side, all of the same gauge, which, I guess would be around 0.6 to 0.8mm, or 0.012 to 0.014 inches. Each string is about 350 mm (14 inches) long.
The reason for it being strung on both sides is that when a full gamelan changes from Pelog scale to Slendro ,or vice versa, you can turn the Siter over (definitely no puns here please- you'll have the social services round) and play in the other scale.
I don't really want to go out and buy 21 guitar E strings, and cut off the ends and cut them in half, so I'm looking for a source for the raw wire that guitar stings are made of.
I did buy some wire from a fishing tackle shop, but they had obviously got their decimal point in the wrong place, because their stainless wire was actually 1.2mm. It was very useful for supporting a climbing rose in the garden though.
Does anyone know where I can buy a reel of about 25 metres of guitar string?
Cheers
Dave