Mimmo Peruffo

Mimmo was born at Arborea, Sardinia. Since 1983, chemist, pupil of the stringmaker Arturo Granata of Melzo (Province of Milan) and researcher in Caldogno, a village near Vicenza (where he founded the Aquila Corde Armoniche S.a.s), devotes himself to the study and re-creation of gut strings used in Renaissance, Baroque and Classical music. In 1997, while researching some modern materials, he discovered and brought onto the market Nylgut, a true “synthetic gut” to substitute for nylon on historical plucked instruments and on classical guitar, ukulele, ouds, charangos etc.

His research papers have appeared in Recercare, F.O.M.R.H.I quarterly, The Italian Lute Society Bulletin, Orfeo, The Lute Society of America Bulletin, Quattrocentoquindici, Il Fronimo, Gendai Guitar and Das Musikinstrument, among the others. He took care of the gut string section in the musical instruments catalogue of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg and the volume on the Bergamo 1998 exhibition Evaristo Baschenis and still life painting in Europe.  

He was the first to carry out an accurate research on the gut strings pieces from the first half of the 18th century in the Museo Stradivariano in Cremona and the gauging of the original violin gut strings which belonged to Nicolò Paganini (April 2000). He has been consulting papers in the conservatories and universities in Vienna, Dresden, Milan, Venice, London, Brussels, Florence, Brescia, The Hague, Gijon, etc. In spare time (!), he plays lute, guitar and ukulele.