Frank: yes, that's what i mean. I'm familiar with the Guitar Allemande and it is interesting that the instrument in the photo has the same body shape, but appears to be a small standard six string guitar. At least from what I can make out. Brad
Frank Nordberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Brad McEwen wrote: > thesmaller instrument next to it looks like a Guittarr > Allemande, but it appears to have a fixed bridge and a more > modern stylke headstock. Same basic body shape,though. I hadn't noticed that. In fact I don't think anybody had noticed the similarity before you did. The picture is a detail from a well known photo of Napoleon Coste posing with his four guitars. In addition to these two the full photo shows his regular seven-stringer and a Swedish lute - both equipped witht that peculiar bridge/tailpiece combo seen on the bass guitar. The small instrument is generally regarded as just a terz guitar (is there a good English name for it?), the body shape being nothing but an intersting but insignificant oddity. However, take a look at these three: http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0619.htm http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0621.htm http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/bindernagel_1804.htm The first one is a fairly standard French Guitarr Allemande ("German Guitar") except it has a regular peghead. It's believed to have been made by Le Blond who also made similar instruments with Preston tuners. The second is also a Guitarr Allemande with a regular peghead. This one actually is German though - made by Bindernagel - and the number of strings has been reduced to eight. No. 3 is another Bindernagel, only this one has a fixed bridge and only seven strings. Remove one more strings, modernize the peghead design and we have Coste's guitar. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com http://stores.ebay.com/Nordbergs-Music-Store?refid=store To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. --
