Roman, and all,
This was very interesting info. that some modern lute makers think =
that the 13 course baroque lute was made too thin historically to =
withstand the tension of the additional new courses and as a result have =
a very short life span, and that many modern builders copy these lute =
soundboards, half of which are probably based on ren lute thickness and =
also have problems.
When I Measured the Jauck I noticed something that I simply =
dismissed as crazy and something I would never do or try to duplicate, =
until I thought about your message and that was the arch in the =
soundborad. Now it all kind of makes sense!!! I think Jauch new about =
this problem with Baroque lutes and as I said before defiantly put the =
arch into the soundboard to strengthen the top and raise the frequency. =
This is where guitar making comes in handy, as this was done from the =
time of Torres, and this is what I do as well, but on a lute? Arching =
the top of any instrument with string tension greatly increases it's =
strength as well as the life span of the instrument, and it greatly =
increases the response. Again I would love to compare all the known =
Jaucks and see if this is a feature of the conversions he did or it was =
just an anomaly. Roman, do you know if Rutherford copied this feature =
as well into Barto's lute?
Michael Thames
Luthier
www.ThamesClassicalGuitars.com
--
