Thank you, everybody. I have a fair amount to think about and digest. I think I'll avoid the EMS student lutes; one person here voiced a very strong objection to them, even though the EMS ebay feedback is glowing. The people buying them are, no doubt, like me: having heard few good instruments in person and having played none, their opinions aren't reliable. Martin S. seemed dead set against the idea; granted, and although the Early Music Shop is a competitor of sorts I'll take his word on the matter. If worse comes to worse I'll try to build one; it can't be harder than building a guitar.
I'll be on the lookout for a used lute in a few weeks. (And will revisit all the suggested sites again.) I love Weiss already through transcriptions for guitar, and all but chortled when I found a website with scans of his works in tablature, there for the downloading. I'll have to think about exactly what I want most to play on lute. The difference in tuning doesn't bother me; I got used to the Russian 7-string tuning (DGBdgbd'), although reading in the higher positions is a bit dicey. If I have more questions I'll be sure to ask them. Tx. Tim B. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
