Leonard Williams wrote: > When the > string pops, there is a very sudden change in the tension on the > instrument. > Can this be damaging?
If you lose one of 15 strings on an eight-course lute, the tension will suddenly be something like 14/15 of what it was before the string broke--more if it's string you have it under more tension than the others, less if it's a string under lower tension than the others (it's common to keep the trebles strings. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
