I have a 10 cs lute - made by a prominent european maker - wherein the back of the pegbox was made of yew (matching the bowl) and it was highly carved. Unfortunately, the entire pegbox pulled loose; but the construction was unusual and extremely light-weight with very little wood between the fingerboard and pegbox - I think that a strong mortise cut for the peggbox - as most lutes are made - and a strong pegbox frame would take care of any such problem. There are a few non-historical lutes around that do not have backs on the pegboxes - they are structurally quite strong (the only problem is that the sides of the pegbox bend - so the opposite pegs pop out when you try to tune them).
Cheers, trj -----Original Message----- From: Nicolás Valencia <niva...@gmail.com> To: baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Sent: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 7:30 pm Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Is peg-box decoration safe? Dear All, I've recently ordered a 13-course baroque lute beautifully decorated with a fretwork at the back of the peg-box. However, I'm still hesitating if this is the right choice. My question is: does it affect the peg-box strength and therefore could it be risky because of the string tension? I've read a thread about somebody who had his decoration unglued when trying to tune his instrument... Regards, Nicolas -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~ wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
