Thanks all for a lot of great advice. It's greatly appreciated. I've (obviously) been doing a bit of reading. One luthier's webpage I ran across pointed out that 6-course Renaissance music doesn't suffer horribly on 7/8-course lutes, but that one should never even think of playing music intended for 6-course lute on a 10-course instrument.
My question is: Why not? (Assuming the first six courses are tuned appropriately.) And would it be any different if I "accidentally" didn't bother to string the lower courses? I can see how it may not be desirable to go the other way--play X-course music on 6-course instruments. But since my having multiple lutes is not a possibility in the near, intermediate, and probably even long-term future, I'm trying to find a compromise that'll maximize the music I could play, without doing undue violence to the musical text itself. (Allow a me brief note on why lutes aren't popular in this day and age. Instruments are expensive and fragile. Repertoire is in a fairly unfamiliar idiom. I was originally put off guitar by the (relative non-)complexity of having to choose 650 mm or 640 mm scale length, cedar/spruce top, "country" vs. classical, and choice of back/side wood. There's no decent lute tutor that I can find. The instrument doesn't receive airplay or have superstars prancing on stage--hunk, punk, or babe, variously. And, as Segovia is reported to have said, We live in a noisy age.) Tim B. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
