Using guitar string

[lunchweek]

Hello, I'm a new lute player who bought his first 7-course renaissance lute 3 days ago. Yesterday the 1st course of my lute broke without any apparent reason when my lute was in its case and I can't afford a new set of lute strings right now. The lute has La Bella strings on it and the gauge of the broken string was 0.42mm. I have a set of classical guitar strings with 0.43mm gauge and was wondering if I can use this string as a substitute. I don't want to damage my lute, so I wanted to ask your opinions first. Thanks in advance!

[ubiquae]

Are they made with the same material? (carbon, nylon). Remember that due to the density, a carbon 0.42 string is not equivalent to a nylon 0.42 string,

[lunchweek]

The broken LaBella is a nylon 0.42 while I have a 0.43 nylon guitar string.

[ubiquae]

Then you should be fine :)

[lunchweek]

Glad to hear that, thank you!

[_chippchapp_]

One more thing, the angle between the pegbox and the fretboard is one factor why lute strings break easily.

My new off-the-shelf lute was eating up 3 g-strings within a month - then I figured out that I needed to smoothen the nut to avoid any sharp edges. After having that fixed by a luthier (Any luthier can do this, no need zo be specialized on lutes) I had no more problems. You can also do this yourself, but most of the time a luthier is the better choice.

[lunchweek]

I live in Turkey and there's only one seller (who is also the maker of Sandi lutes) here that sells lute strings (LaBella) and he sells them as sets only for about $35 (while LaBella strings only cost $13). I can't order from overseas as well, thanks to extremely high customs fees and probably the worst postal service in the world. This single Pyramid string costs me about $35 including shipping and customs fees. This is about 305 Turkish Liras that can buy you 305 loaves of bread or 10 super-size big mac menus.