I have in front of me a picture of Hopkinson Smith, described in the flyer for a concert as "the best player in the world" by the San Francisco Chronical. I'm lazy on my mail so missed the concert at Princeton (and we all know that the best is always what a flyer says).
But the photo shows what appears to be a ten course lute with the top five being single. The shape is definitely similar to the Hieber/Renaissance shape, down to the little "teeth" edging into the body/soundboard. He seems to play Dowland in that concert, and I'll not guarantee that the top five courses are single, it is a bad photo. Here is the question. The pegboard is something I haven't seen, although the angle of the photo is such that I can't be sure. The pegboard isn't slotted in the classical way, but the pegs come from the sides rather than through (as in the pre-Renaissance). The pegboard is at the classic @90 deg. angle to the fingerboard. But the anomaly I see is a diagonal line of "nubbins" running from near the nut on the chanterelle side to the end of the pegboard at the bass side. They don't encompass all the strings. If I had to guess I'd say that the central strings were making a 90 degree turn off those "nubbins" in order to make the passage over the nut direct. But I can't see the "pins" for the wind of the strings, it could be that they come back down and wind on the top of the pegs. If anyone has a thought on this I'd like to know, and I've got the "promo" photo and will attach it to anyone that wants to look. It looks like an interesting way to set the strings. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
