Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Guitar bridges
Given that the bourdon in any case will be slightly higher the the treble string as it is thicker it is not difficult to give it prominence where necessary. A plain gut bourdon on the fifth is so thick that it is hard to miss!Ed Durbrow
Actually this was not Ed's comment and not what he was querying. What he actually said was "So what do the guitars with original bridges with holes show? Are the holes even at their tops, centers, bottoms or not even at all?" If most early Italian guitars have holes this is presumably of some relevance since you can't do a double loop through a hole. Are the holes even or do they vary in height and size?
That may seem so, but making use of the thumb outside technique--which I suppose was always done by part of the population, also on the lute--the fingers and the thumb sometimes will come very close to each other. In that situation it will be more difficult to avoid the thumb to strike in a somewhat upward direction (to avoid hitting the next course), and mainly touch the high octave. To play a real bass, which needs a good control of how we balance the two strings of a course, we better make sure to catch the low octave string, and make it sound loud enough. For the same reason it may be easier to play campanelas with thumb out. At least if you would like to single out the high octave strings.
That's as may be but we don't know whether Bartolotti (or Foscarini - both were primarily lutenists) played thumb out or whether he thought it was necessary to have a prominent bass part.
As ever Monica
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