Hi Sean, >I think you mentioned Annapolis...I heard my first lute concert at >Great Hall at St John's --probably the best hall in town.
I'm about 20 miles south near by not quite overlooking the Bay. And I've heard St. John's is nice but I haven't had the opportunity to attend a concert there. >Getting back to Octaves: A largish gut string from the 4th course down >will have an increasingly thuddy sound on an untheorbo'd neck. There's >no way all that diameter can create overtones. Therefore, as the string >is pared down w/ loading and metal it has a chance to create overtones >like its smaller brothers as well as letting it ring longer. Pairing a >metal string w/ an ocave gut is, in a sense, gilding the lilly. So if one were to go with all gut, you'd recommend a gimped or even a loaded gut bass fundamental against a gut 8ve? >For a 6c lute I'd suggest roped 6th and 5th courses paired w/ a gut or >nylgut 8ve (prefs in that order). Ok, you'll have to explain "roped" to me as applies to strings. I take it you mean gut strings in this case? >The 4th works fine with a solid gut >string and a gut, nylgut (or even nylon) 8ve. This is what I've used >for the past 5 years on all my 6c's and I've enjoyed a very balanced >sound both for the course and for the lute overall. The fundamentals >usually last me about a year or longer, depending on use while the gut >octaves go intonation-funny much sooner. Your kilometerage may vary. I've just changed my 4th course from octaves to unision. I like the feel and playability of it. I was getting uneven plucking because the neck on my 6c is thinner than I'm used to because I don't play it as often as the 8c (or as often as I should). This has helped a lot in making my playing more consistent. When I do get around to building a six course lute I will make the neck a bit wider just to see how this affects my playing. Thanks for the info. Regards, Craig ___________________________________________________________ $0 Web Hosting with up to 200MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. Signup at www.doteasy.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
