Greetings Michael et al. Yes, I am familiar with Len's site...and the Tyler & Sparks text it is referencing on the linked page...and am pretty comfortable with theories of guitar evolution to boot. I think Len's bullets are a little too general and, while generally factual, often are selected to support his anti-post-Torres guitar bias; e.g., "Fan bracing with 3-7 fans was used since the 1750's in Spanish guitars; it was not invented by Torres" (an obvious statement of the obvious) or "String lengths on Baroque and early Spanish 6-string instruments were longer than a concert Ramirez" (assuming Len has 66 cm in mind as a concert Ramirez: of course, scale length of baroque-era guitars commonly exceeded 68 cm, but were highly variable, often falling comfortably under 64 cm, and scale length of full-size, pre-Torres guitars specifically built to carry six strings typically was a scant ca. 60-64 cm).
Even being generous with Len's "mid 1770s" estimate of 6-string guitar appearance in the absence of dedicated literature or extant instruments, we are still falling a comfortable decade after 1765. However, I think he may have misstated "6-string guitars were around since the mid 1770s" and intended to say "single-strung guitars..." You'll have to forgive me...or feel free to correct me; I am typing from my day-job office and removed from formal print references. It's all really moot, however, given the point I was intending to address was that of silver-wound silk basses, which we all agree certainly were in use at that time on a variety of stringy things. Best, Eugene At 12:55 PM 2/28/2005, Michael Thames wrote: >Eugene, > >a.. The 6-course guitar arose first in Spain in the 1750's, with double >strings (same as today's 12-string guitar) >a.. Merits of single vs. double stringing was debated on 5 and 6 course >guitars since at least the 1770's >a.. String improvements allowed cheap and readily accessible wire-wound >basses in the 1780's >a.. 6-string guitars were around since the mid 1770's, but were not popular >until the late 1790's >a.. The 6-single string "modern" guitar was not invented on a particular >date, but rather was a product of centuries of evolution. >a.. Most experts agree the single-course, 6-string guitar began to appear >commonly around 1785 as several extant instruments prove. However, it was >invented earlier but was not popular, and many single-course variants like >the arch-guitar, lyre-guitar with 7-10 or more strings apparently preceded >it in the 18th century. >a.. More info. http://home.houston.rr.com/verrett/erg/erg/evolution.htm >Michael Thames >www.ThamesClassicalGuitars.com >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Eugene C. Braig IV" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Lute net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 8:40 AM >Subject: Re: wound basses > > > > At 03:38 PM 2/26/2005, Michael Thames wrote: > > >...1765, the same time when first classical guitar, with single strings > > >(Wound metal on silk) started to appear. > > > > > > Actually, such guitars didn't come until a couple decades later...but the > > first Neapolitan mandolins did appear around this time and did use a g of > > silver-wound silk as stated in the early methods published in 1760s Paris. > > > > Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
