Absolute, bottom line for me- in Weiss's music the 9th-E/Eflat course is just fingered too damn many times to be put on an extension. The 10th and even the 11th also get their share of accidentals- there is at least one fugue that for me loses it all at a very important spot if the fingered 11th-C# is taken up to the higher octave. That said, I would still love to spend some quality time getting to know such an instrument; to hear for myself what the sound balance and quality would be like. Indoor swinging is of course an issue but after shooting my 72" longbow indoors (target bag in the coat closet) all these years I'm better prepared for it now than I was 30 odd years ago when I took out a ceiling fixture with a theorbo at some lute function or other.
For transport, I know one player who routinely used get his triple peg box Jauch (sp?) thing into the overhead where a bent back pegbox wouldn't have made it. That was before 9-11, however. -Dan -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
