Dear David, Thomas Robinson gives the names of the strings of a 6-course lute as follows:
Treble. Small Meanes. Great Meanes. Contra-tenor. Tenor. Bass. Presumably the strings used for the 5th and 6th courses were too thick to be used for frets. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of David R Sent: 15 February 2012 17:20 To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] Message for Ed Martin I was talking to someone the other day about viol fretting, specifically: using old strings as fret gut. Along with some information on that, he sent me this quote from Dowland. He didn't specify John or Robert: "therefore doe this; let the two first frets neerest the head of the Instrument (being the greatest) be of the size of your Countertenor, then the third and fourth frets must be of the size of your great Meanes : the fift and sixt frets of the size of your small Meanes : and all the rest sized with Trebles. These rules serue also for Viols, or any other kinde of Instrument whereon frets are tyed." I'm not familiar with the terms "countertenor," "great meanes" or "small means." I assume Dowland is referring to lute strings, but can anyone tell me which courses he's referring to? Also, I've been so out of touch over the last year or so, I've lost track of people's e-mail addresses. Ed Martin, can you drop me an e- mail? Something I wanted to ask you about: d_lu...@comcast.net. Thanks. David Rastall To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
