On 29 August 2011 20:07, Eugene C. Braig IV <brai...@osu.edu> wrote: > Plugging and re-drilling a bridge to suit whatever configuration a player > has need of seems commonplace enough.
Indeed, and in the bridge of a decent enough instrument plugging and drilling is no problem. (I use what I call a finger drill, by the way, basically a pencil-shaped handle to a drill bit, making drilling almost parallel to the sound board possible). But refitting lesser quality instruments can be a pain. Soft wood (you'd be amazed at the cotton wool - quality of wood used in the neck of the guitar I'm changing into an ersatz-theorbo/baroque lute/archlute at the moment, drilling with my finger is no problem, literally!) and non-reversible glues are a bother to work with. As an academic exercise, what would be needed to convert this particular theorboed baroque guitar into an archlute or theorbo? Here it is once more: http://quality1trader.co.uk/musical-instrument/strings/lute/theorbo-bass-lute-medium/ A lute or theorbo needs at least 6 courses on the fingerboard (since somebody asked, yesterday was the last time I fretted notes below the fifth course and today I'm expecting to to it again) and an unspecified number of diapassons. The instrument has nine pegs in the lower peg box. One solutions is to add two pegs (a bit of a job, but with the right tools it's possible) and have 1x1 / 5x2 on the fingerboard. With nine diapassons, you can add some chromatics in the basses and have a working lute/theorbo with 15 courses. Quite something. Another solution would be to use 7 single strings on the fingerboard. That would require widening the nut, an easier job that should not represent any major problems. With 9 diapassons that would mean a 16-course archlute/theorbo. An attractive thought and a relatively easy job, compared to the extra pegs. You might find single strings to work better, and at least easier to play, on this instrument anyway, so perhaps this is the first option to explore. Tuning Stopped string length is 66cm, suggesting a tuning in e'. (Tune it like a guitar and you can even play 19th century 10 string guitar music on it :-), but if you don't mind thin synthetics, tuning it higher should present no problems. The basses are shortish, so a higher tuning would be better, actually. If the instrument is tuned to g', gut diapassons are possible (if cost is an issue use fret gut, it really is so much better than any of the modern materials), otherwise carbon or metal-wounds seem to be the best option. If anybody is taking the plunge, let us know about the results. 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
