Issues Re: String Crossing

[Johnny Layton]

Hmm well alright then, everybody familiar with Corelli's 370 strings know they use a material that has more mass than your typical metal string a la Spiro or Flexocore.

I see the gut/metal string combo quite a bit, where the guts are on top and metal on bottom. That's a material issue too, where the string diameters can be made to match a little better...and Patrick Neher's idea seems to take that further.

O.K. then, for those of you who use a metal/gut combination, do you find string crossing (bowing or pizz they both eventually get done no matter the music style anyway) to be easier, more difficult, just different, the same?

Looking at strings for mass as a key indicator of performance intrigues me. I've never really looked at strings this way before. Choosing strings of different mass to control string size, making the high strings and low string sizes match, does it make a difference?