Herbert, As an inveterate "jig" builder I agree with the other answers. But will add my own. If you are dealing with plain old pine stud you don't need a sharp draw knife (which costs money), a good sharp hunting knife or such will allow you to whittle it to a gross size (the wood isn't hard). Then the broken glass suggestion as a scraper can take over.
I would gather that part of the idea of a bus transportable "dummy" lute is the size. Marion and Vance are right about the weight balance, but you could drill a hole in the end of the dummy neck and insert a length of pipe (removable to put the pieces back in the carry bag) to counter balance, it won't give you right hand coordination, but it will make a balance for the left hand. The suggestions for stringing it seem to go beyond what you are looking for, but they have a point. How do you know if you are in the right place. And you do need to feel the fret distances as well. But it seems you want a silent "instrument". And it would be nice if there was an appropriate resistance similar to the lute strings. How about this. The "zither pins" used on small harps are cheap, and are easy to install, but you need a nut to bring the strings to level. You don't want to spend the time of making a peg head at an angle for this silent instrument. So take the straight board, a bit over length, and drill for the strings and set grommets in the holes, Now set zither pins on the reverse side to anchor the strings (and adjust the tension). Run them over a nut and to a saddle bridge (you can make that like the nut. Drill behind the bridge and anchor the strings underneath (you could rabbet the end of the "fingerboard" to make an anchor point. It is doable, I'm not sure if it is useful - you would have to eyeball your accuracy of left hand fingering if the instrument is silent (and fishing line would do for 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
