We are specialists in stringing historical instruments and aim to offer a choice of options based on historical sources, made from materials of the highest possible quality.

We are happy to provide a bespoke product for our customers to reflect the unique nature of many period instruments and that will provide each musician with the quality of sound that they are aiming for in their perfomance.

Enquiries via our contact page or by telephone are welcome.

Producing historical strings since 1975,  Northern Renaissance Instruments (NRI) continues to be at the forefront of the historical research and high quality production of historical stringing of various types. Building upon the work of our founders Dr Ephraim Segerman and Djilda Segerman, the Orpheus Gut String range has been developed by Luke and Susan Challinor to serve the needs of various different instruments, alongside the traditional range of NRI strings which has been expanded. 

We continue our connection with Aquila Corde Armoniche and are proud to hold stock of strings of their producton in addition to our own.

Meet the team

Luke Challinor

A professional Viol, Cello and Lute player, Luke began working at NRI at the age of 15 whilst still a student at Chethams school of Music in Manchester. He continued his training for 8 years whilst also studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Luke is based between Salzburg (Austria) where he studies under Vittorio Ghielmi at the Universitat Mozarteum, and the UK. Luke's particular interest in the research of responsive plain gut and Metal wound strings drove his experimentation with historical construction methods, resulting in the Orpheus String range. As well as producing the Plain gut Orpheus strings, Luke manufactures bespoke metal wound strings (both Demi-filee and close wound) on the Orpheus cores.

Susan Challinor

Susan began working as a string maker at NRI in 2016, having worked previously in the fine art materials trade. Her extensive knowledge of pigments, mediums and varnishes offers a valuable source of these materials to our customers. She is the administrator at NRI as well as the manager of our UK workshop.