Mike,
Glad to be back! I'm going to append a message to you below your quoted
message so that the entire list doesn't have to read it. But I send it to
the list because some might be interested. JWM.
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:19 PM
Subject: RE: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: Lute - Baroque Guitar
Jon-
Nice to hear from you again.
Mike Wilson
*
Mike, and all,
For some reason I haven't been seeing Lute Builder communications for some
time, I guess I got them "lost in a filter" somehow. I'm going to toss in a
bit of the personal just because I feel like it.
I got off track for a while due to some medical problems, these happen when
you reach my advanced age <g>, luckily my age ain't that advanced (72) in
these days. I have continued with my intent to write a book on strings -
I've been doing physical experiments on the various materials with a few
devices of my own concoction. The manufacturers provide some specs as to
density and tensile strength - and these are key factors in instrument
design - but many are out of date, and don't allow for the differences in
manufacturing quality. I've built a "set of shears" (the two leg derrick
used in the days of wooden ships to raise the masts) and a block and tackle
rig to test the tensile strengths (the weights were a problem, then I got
body builder's weights at a Modell's at a discount). I can put direct
tension of up to 170 lbs. in increments of a half pound (and no, I don't
start low and add half pounds). A jeweler's scale lets me test the density
of the material. I'm working with steel, gut, Nylgut, bronze and brass - I
hope to come up with a practical reference book for all stringed
instruments.
I'm sure those who have read this far wonder why this effort when the
formulae and principles of the strings have been known for centuries (and
the basics known since Pythagorus). I got off onto a side track this summer
when an emergency operation on one of my legs made me keep my leg up. I
couldn't play my harp, which is my main instrument, and it wasn't a great
position for the lute - so I started working with the medieval psaltery I'd
made a couple of years ago - and had considered a bit of a toy. As I played
it I realized that there was more to it than I thought - and I looked up the
various paintings and sketches from the times and found it was often played
as a polyphonic instrument laid horizontally, and with many more strings
than the current makers use. Not the simple melody instrument of the "new
age" practitioners. That returned me to the writing of the book, and started
me on the idea of making fully capable psalteries for sale. (They are a lot
easier to make than lutes).
Harps and lutes, psalteries and dulcimers (and I convinced that historically
the dulcimer is a psaltery that is struck - they separated a couple of
centuries ago). The strings are the same (given the material) but the
criteria for selection are different. It is said that the lute should be
tuned just under the break pitch of the chanterelle, then the rest
appropriately. My "flat back" from Musikits was over length - it took a
particular fishing line of a slightly higher tensile strength than musical
nylon to get it to G. (Musikits changed its length on my advice). That
brought me to the personal discovery of the long known fact that there is a
"breaking pitch", something that should have been obvious - but like
"Columbus and the egg" not generally recognized. Yet all the articles and
texts that dealt with the string formulae were specific to the instrument.
The harp maker, with his many strings pulling directly away from the
soundboard, has to consider the total tension of all the strings (which can
amount to over 1000 lbs), else the soundboard will pop. The luthier has
different concerns as his strings are "stopped" to change the pitch, making
the fixed length variable. The zither/cithera/lyre/psaltery maker is in
between. I've recast the formulae algebraically, and am graphing the
competing characteristics, such that I think I will come up with something
universally useful (including the recasting regarding the use of "weight"
measures of tension and the "force" measure as in Newtons). They are all the
same, just use different fixed and independent variables.
OK, I've rambled. Now a bit more. My workshop is in a converted "walk-in"
closet in my bedroom, and has spread into the bedroom. Storage of supplies
and partially completed work is almost impossible. My lady and I have
decided to move (she will sell her NYC co-op apartment and move here - we
have bid on a slightly larger place in my development that has an attic!!!
And a bedroom for me big enough to sleep in and have a properly laid out
workshop - and keep my sawdust out of her living room). I expect that to
happen in February, and the move is only a short drive (for Tiger Woods, a
driver and a five iron for me) so I can move all the tools gradually and set
up the workshop (the bed is a minor matter, who sleeps). When I'm set up
I'll be able to work on the lute, perhaps another harp, and also make a
production line for psalteries - and do my testing and writing for the
book - without having to spend hours resetting up. I look forward to it.
Wish me good luck,
Best, Jon
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
