I'm not good at choosing the wood as the only lute I've built (a flat
back) was from a kit - but I will second, and doubly second, Richard's
comments on the weight of the neck and peg box as to the balance of the
instrument.
The hand position on the lute is different than that on the guitar as
the form of play is different - I'll not get into detail, I'll just say
that one needs a bit more freedom of finger movement with the lute. I
converted a Bolivian charango to a Scot's mandora (small instrument - @
14 long strings bridge to nut, five double courses) - the charango has
a heavy peg box with mechanical tuning pegs. I have to use a saxophone
neck strap to support the head of the instrument in order to have the
freedom of the fingers (the music for the Scot's mandora is of a vintage
with early lute music). With my lute I need no strap as the balance is
there - although I do have a button on the tail so I can attach a
guitar strap which I sit on to hold the tail down when I don't have a
good sitting position (I do like to loll back in my armchair when
playing relaxed with a beer).
Summary, the balance of the lute, as Richard says, is a very important
part of its playability - I'm only emphasizing his comments.
BTW, for those interested - it wasn't much of a conversion on the
charango, just a bit of widening the bridge tie down holes and the nut
grooves for the wider strings in the 4th and 5th courses. The charango
is re-entrant, like a ukelele (a one octave range on the open strings)
whereas the Scot's mandora has a two octave range across the five
courses (tuned in fourths and fifths - i.e. D,G,d,g,d',g'). Actually it
is normally higher, but my charango is a bit longer than the Scot's
mandora so I made it a baritone. No relationship to the larger mandora
of Europe, I guess the old Scots borrowed the name and form but made it
smaller. The only reason I got the charango and converted it was that
when the Bolivia Mall first came onto the web it was selling at very low
prices - my hand carved charango, a gourd shape from one piece of wood,
cost me less than the wood would cost ($65) to make it.
That has changed as they became successful.
Best, Jon
On 10/30/2012 6:09 PM, Joshua Horn wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm giving a go at building my first lute. (A flat-back) I have a
question though, I have a considerable amount of large pieces of dried
Oak on my back porch. Would it work to use these to make the neck and
peg box and maybe the bridge out of? I picked them up from a neighbor
and I have had no use for them yet. They've just been sitting there for
years, and I hate for them to go to waste.
Josh
+ Joshua Edward Horn +
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