----- Original Message ----- On Tuesday, May 22, 2007 5:16 PM "Ron Fletcher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The theory I heard once, is that the larger bout of the guitar is to > improve > the lower resonance and, the upper bout for the higher resonance. Yes, this may indeed be a possibility. What is actually interesting with the two examples of instruments that Tony mentioned about (Afghani rebab and Iranian tar) is that the inner cavity of the body gets rather shallow at the waist area, creating a narrow air passage between the lower and upper bouts, in other words dividing the body in two more or less 'distinct' resonators. In fact, even some varieties of traditional African harps have their skin covered bodies shaped somewhat like 8, with a clearly defined waist. Another interesting example is Indian sarinda on which the lower (smaller) part of the body is covered with skin membrane (and over which the bridge is placed) while the upper is left open to project the sound, almost like a gramophone bell ... Also, figure of 8-shape body (or with the C-shape bouts) doesn't seem to be a sort of prerequisite for bow accommodation on some types of early bowed instruments; they are occasionally shown played with the bow well beyond (above) the waist area. Alexander To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
