I have seen a couple of lute photos where the endclasp continues all the way around and meets the neckblock on both sides. This seems useful (in terms of doubling the width of the gluing surface for the belly) but also anomalous, i.e. I don't recall seeing this on any of the historical lute pictures I have seen.
Is there any record of a historical lute with an endclasp that goes all the way around the sides of the lute, or is this a modern invention? Aside from the (what I presume is) inauthenticity, are there any specific reasons to avoid this sort of thing? Trouble doing repairs later, diminished sound output, that sort of thing? - Michael -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html