Alex, Pear is both denser and harder than hard maple, so it would make a fine bowl for a lute. I don't know how easily it bends, but since Mustafa says it's used for ouds, it must bend decently. The one time I used it was for a flat-backed instrument, so I didn't have to bend it. It took forever to sand it down to the proper thickness on my little sander, but it certainly helped project the sound. I think it's used a lot for wooden flutes and recorders.
I would think the reasons it's not used more is because it doesn't have much of a figure and isn't as dramatic looking as the tropical hardwoods and at least in the US it's rather scarce and expensive. There are no old-growth rain forests of European pear to clear-cut. I've never seen it in my local hardwood dealer's stock. The pear that I used was from Luthier's Mercantile and I've never seen it in their list of available back and side woods since that one time. Tim On May 8, 2012, at 2:04 AM, Alexandros Tzimeros wrote: > Hi dear all, > > after sorting out the disadvantages of mahogany in lute construction, > can we discuss about pearwood? It is a wood that I rarely see being used in > lutes. > The point is that I like it a lot but I'm a bit hesitant to use it. > Any opinions? > > Thanks, > Alex > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html