Hi there, well, if I may spend my penny of limited experience... People tend not to buy a 6 course Renaissance lute until they aren't much more advanced in the Renaissance repertoire. Beginners and many other players seem to think that an 8-course instrument will offer a broader repertoire. After a short time everybody realizes that in fact there is a huge amount of music written for a 6-course, music that needs to be played on a 6-course instrument, as it just sounds SO much better on it... The next step is that the player will look for a 6-course instrument and sell the 8-course she had. As a consequence: there are many more 8-course instruments on sale than 6 course...
In any case: I just bought a WONDERFUL 8-course from Barber & Harris (www.lutesandguitars.co.uk). They delivered it to me while in Vienna for the Resonanzen Festival. In that occasion I played a 6 course they have available... I wish I had another £ 2,600 for that: it was simply fantastic. You could have a look to that lute. Ciao, Luca Portogruaro, Venice, Italy Wayne Cripps on 17/02/2006 3.54 wrote: >Hi lute people - > > So I am thinking that on my "lutes for sale" web page I have >not seen many 6 course lutes go by, and I am wondering why.. >It could be because there aren't so many 6 course lutes out >there, which is a bit surprising given all the music for a >6 course instrument, or it could be that people get a 6 course >lute and keep it, because they are all so nice and easy to play.. >(I am thinking about this because I am toying with the >idea of getting a 6 course lute myself.) > > In fact (or actually, in supposition) it seems to me that >more people try to move theorbos thananything else.. and again, >this could be because the idea of playing a theorbo is >more attractive than the reality, or it could be because >there are more theorbo players out there doing the baroque music >gigs than I realise.. > > I wil have to look at my records and see if the numbers are aligned >with my suppositions. But I would also like to know if you >folk have more knowlege of the statistics of lute sales >than I do, new or used. Or perhaps better theories. > > Wayne > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > >
