Hi Wandervogelistas, Following Christopher's hints I came across the so-called Stoessel-Laute, which seems to have been enormously popular in the early 20th century in Germany, in several variations. It was a very cheap instrument normally, thus probably no fun to try. But some of the pictures look more promising, thus investing a little amount might be worth it, for special purposes and repertoire. Does anyone own such an instrument or at least know how it sounds? Any advice how to get a not too bad one? Are there luthiers who build these instruments?
Thanks and best Franz ------------------------------------ Dr. Franz Mechsner Hanse Institute for Advanced Study Lehmkuhlenbusch 4 D-27753 Delmenhorst/Bremen GERMANY E-mail: [1]franz.mechs...@unn.ac.uk Phone: +49 (0)4221 9160-215 Fax: +49 (0)4221 9160-179 __________________________________________________________________ Von: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu im Auftrag von Christopher Stetson Gesendet: Mi 05.05.2010 13:05 An: lute; wolfgang wiehe Betreff: [LUTE] Re: stringing of a "wandervogellaute" Hi, Wolfgang and all. I don't have a guitar lute, but several early 20th c. guitars. Why get fancy? Just buy a standard classical guitar string set. It will at least come close, and the good news is the price. In 1920 it would still have been gut. and you can get a standard gut set for about 30 USD here in the USA. I'd probably go with an Aquila nylgut Alabastro set (10 USD here in USA) , but any classical guitar set would probably be fine. I'm even thinking of trying D'Addarios on my 1900 parlor guitar (currently Alabastros), because they sound so good on my friend's 1909 guitar. And you might find it's not a bad instrument if you let it be what it is. There's an interesting body of German songs with guitar from 1903 to 1917 here: [1][2]http://www.muslib.se/ebibliotek/boije/Boije_g.htm , presumably the music it was made to play, and potentially fascinating historically. Look in Gitarristische Vereinigung and Der Guitarrefreund Musikbeilage. I've been wanting to explore them for awhile, but it never quite makes the top of the list. Best to all, and keep playing, Chris. >>> "wolfgang wiehe" <wie-w...@gmx.de> 5/5/2010 6:09 AM >>> hello all, I get a present from member of our church choir: a 6-string "wandervogelgitarre" 63cm mensur. It is the instrument of her father (born in 1904). so its about 90 years old. not very pretty but corpus and soundboard without cracks and with intact mechanics. the instrument is stringed with nylon and cu-wounded guitar strings (more than 30 years old and made in GDR!), make a deep bass sound (I tuned it in D).... Someone has experiences with stringing this furniture? mathias roesel told me to string it with nylgut (4 kg tension....) greetings w. To get on or off this list see list information at [2][3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [4]http://www.muslib.se/ebibliotek/boije/Boije_g.htm 2. [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute -- References 1. mailto:franz.mechs...@unn.ac.uk 2. http://www.muslib.se/ebibliotek/boije/Boije_g.htm 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 4. http://www.muslib.se/ebibliotek/boije/Boije_g.htm 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute