Do you have a teacher? What does s/he say about it? If you just got the lute, it could have been just an anomaly or it may be that your lute is strung improperly. You do not want to have the wrong tension on there. If you are brand new to the lute, coming from classical guitar, you need to be aware that the tension of an individual string is less than that of the guitar. Who set the lute stringing up? Did you get it directly from the maker? Does the maker specialize in lutes? Did it break at the nut, bridge or somewhere else? Where it broke could indicate some rough or sharp spot.
Nice pegs are a joy. I had a bit of a revelation the other day when I changed 'round the position of my Nylguts on my tiny A lute. The strings are long enough to almost get two strings out of them. I had wound up the unused part on the peg. When I reversed the string I didn't need to wind up the part that had been played on for months. This made the tuner pegs work much smoother. I don't know why. It wasn't rubbing on anything before. Anyway, this is a J. Rollins lute and I wrote and asked him how he made such smooth tuners. He just said do it right, or something to that effect. I don't know what his secret is, but I appreciate it. Some peg dope might help the tuners. If this is a used instrument, perhaps the pegs need to be re-turned? The makers here could advise you better. cheers, >I obtained my first lute a couple of weeks ago and have just broken a >string. There has been a lot of technical stuff about strings on the >discussion list in recent times, but to be honest, such technicalities are >beyond me. I should like some practical advice, please, because I don't >understand why I broke the string. I was trying to tune it to F, and had >got to E, so it was well below what I was aiming for. I should have thought >that there was no reason for the break. I had successfully tuned the lute a >couple of times in the previous week, so I know it's possible! > >As a classical guitarist, I do find the tuning pegs awkward. Indeed, I am >finding the whole lute awkward at present, but I've no doubt that >eventually I might get the hang of it and actually be able to play something! > >In the meantime, any practical hints on tuning - without too much science - >would be most appreciated. > >Thanks, > >Regards > >Caroline > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
