What is interesting to read on the "Liuto Forte" site is their argumentation...
One example about frets : "The commonly heard argument, that movability of the frets was retained for the purpose of finely adjusting unequal temperament, does not pay enough attention to the fact that the shifting of a fret always affects several neighbouring strings. Practical investigation into transferring onto fretted instruments those unequal temperaments that were the norm for keyboard instruments has tended today to yield disappointing results. [2] This is less surprising when we remember that a prerequisite for tuning in unequal steps was having a separately tunable string for every tone. Already in 1600, pieces were appearing in lute literature that modulate so freely through the keys, that one can easily imagine how equal temperament had its origin in the tuning of fretted instruments. [3] The fact that controversies were constantly flaring up concerning the better temperament justifies the conclusion that there were always musical ears for whom Pythagorean thirds and wolf fifths were too high a price to pay for the occasional, especially effective pure interval. [4] So long as the player does not intend to purposely make use of unsatisfactory string material, or insist on reconstructing a "faithful" historical lute, there is no reason whatever to cling to tied-on frets and their extreme acoustic disadvantages." And we can go on with many other interesting arguments... on double/single strings : "Double courses require a technique which rather strokes than plucks the strings, setting them in vibration parallel to the soundboard. From the point of view of optimal air and soundboard resonance, this is known to be the least effective method. Players of guitars and theorbos know they need to play the strings down "into" the instrument, in order to get the full sound. Renouncing double courses does admittedly first mean losing that silvery rustling which many enthusiasts find to be the "authentic" lute's chief characteristic. It leads, however, in combination with the new soundboard construction and higher string tension, to a real exploitation of the enclosed air mass and to an incomparably greater range of sound-shaping possibilities. Two strings with half-tension do not achieve the same realisation of sound as does a single string in full tension. Moreover the co-ordination of thin strings to the internal resistance, or impedance, of the soundboard deviates widely from the ideal match." Source : [1]http://www.liuto-forte.com/EN/index.cfm So many thinks we missed and mistaken... Val ;-) -- References 1. http://www.liuto-forte.com/EN/index.cfm To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
