Dear Morgan
I am looking for advice on a first student lute, in this case a
renaissance lute. If this email is inappropriate for this list, or
Best place to ask, as you'll find many contradictory aswers. Welcome
to the club.
Of the 6, 7, and 8 course lutes, it would seem that a 7 course lute
would be most practical.
How right you are, and for all the right reasons, too.
Only go for a 6-course is all you want to play is early to mid 16th
century music. Only go for 10 courses if you want to play Ballrad c.s.
and a lot of baroque continuo.
this reasonable? Are 6 and 7 course lutes tuned differently
(unison vs
octave course)?
That's up to you. Earlier lutes tend to have more octaves (till 4th
course), but that's largely a matter of string choice. With modern
overspun strings you shouldn't use octave strings, the metal is bright
enough as it is, but with gut basses it's nice to add octave strings
to add harmonics to the dull basses. You can experiment.
Renaissance lutes
seem to vary in scale length from 540mm to 670mm.
Again largely influenced by string choice. Moderns strings can handle
more variety in string length for the same pitch, wit gut it is a bit
more precise. Around 59/60m for a g'-lute tuned at a'=440. Around 63
for a g'-lute tuned to a' = 415. Smaller lutes will be higher (e.g. a'
lutes at around 54/56cm), bigger ones will be lower.
small hands? With guitars, often the intonation suffers with
shorter
scale lengths, is this true of lutes as well?
Movable frets solve part if this problem, but my 56cm 6-course doesn't
seem to suffer from it.
I find my big lutes and small lutes each have points that make them
easier to play than the small or big ones. It depends a bit on the
repertoire. Small ones are easy because small, but you have to be very
precise with the chords. Big ones cause big streches, but you don't
have to be so precise. The big ones can be a bother to hold, though:
heavy on the shoulder/arm. But hand streches are only a problem in
really difficult music. Some Dowland pieces would be included.
hold. Is there a body size that would be most comfortable to hold?
You should try. But it's hard to tell before actually having played a
lute for a few weeks/months. In the beginning all can be quite
uncomfortable.
Does the body depth differ, and if so, is a shallower lute more
comfortable to hold?
Yes, to me they are.
All of the student lutes I have looked at have either 9 or 11 ribs.
What effect does the number of ribs have, if any?
More ribs is higher price. But multi-rib lutes look good! ;-)
Multi-ribs lutes can be shallower = give more projection.
lute is a big investment for me and I hope to make as good a
choice as
Get the best lute possible. A student lute from an 'expensive' maker
is better than a lute with fancy ornaments from a cheaper maker. Find
the best maker, then his cheapest lute.
good luck
David
--
*******************************
David van Ooijen
davidvanooi...@gmail.com
www.davidvanooijen.nl
*******************************
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
