Who makes a decent, reasonably priced "octave" lute in d" these days?
I have a 40cm 6c from M.Haycock of his own design from '92. The body is deeper than the Venere model (half-circle body and neck) and the pegbox is at a 90-degree angle. It's on my pic on the Lute.ning page and I'm quite happy with it. A duet/trio buddy has a L.Brown 44cm so we've been able to compare the two easily. That, too, is a fine instrument and I hear he built quite a few so you may be able to find one secondhand. The 44cm lute is very nice and useful at c' and with lutes in F and G make a relaxed Pacalono trio. To my ear it sounds a bit shrill at d' but is doable with synthetics. I keep the "40" at d' (A=415) where it's pretty comfortable. I can take it up or down a semitone easily enough. Sean To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
