Keeping the bass string in its groove sounds good to me, Alan. I have a
ren guitar w/ an issue like that sometimes.
On Sep 2, 2012, at 9:23 AM, Alan Hoyle wrote:
My guess was that, in the early days of the lute, string tensions were
low, particularly in the case of bass strings; by bending them over the
angle of the neck/pegbox join they would be far less likely to slip out
of the nut groove. I also heard the assertion that it increased the
volume of the strings. I do not know if either suggestion is true,
either historically of scientifically...
Alan
On 2 September 2012 17:09, Sean Smith <[1]lutesm...@mac.com> wrote:
I had always assumed it was to play better in groups whether
instrumentalists, singers or others just standing around. Less,
jabbingly, so to speak. By 1500 tradition cemented the idea in the
common mind that that was 'how a lute's shaped' perhaps in keeping
with its history of the oud.
It also keeps the pegs at a common distance from the player and does
not increase the depth of the instrument --unlike the thinner bodied
vihuela/viola/fiddle family. So it does keep the shape compact. So
maybe it was easier to construct a box before custom cases.
When you set it down on its back it keeps the strings parallel
(pre-7c instruments of course) which may have added to an aesthetic
argument. This also means that when you hang it on a wall, the
strings don't collect dust, well, the playing surfaces, anyway.
Ok, I'm wandering. If the reason isn't physics (and we've seen that
straight-out peg boxes could have worked but were not chosen in the
15th and most of the 16th centuries), trying to unravel the social
and aesthetic reasons could be complex --a bit of one and two bits
of another, as it were.
my cent and a half,
Sean
On Sep 2, 2012, at 7:00 AM, Stephen Stubbs wrote:
I was embarrassed when I realized I didn't know the historical reason
to this question put forward on another email list:
"Never did find out why the lute's neck takes that funny turn. Gotta
Google it."
Why does the peg box take that downward turn?
"The Other" Stephen Stubbs
Champaign, Illinois USA
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