Chris , I think all guitar players would love to own these interesting instruments. I am researching surbahar and nyckelharpa also. These instruments are very expensive and hard to construct by hand. I know beginners mind , they want best wood , finish , neck shape and nothing else. But this will be change. I first filled my first composite patent 15 years ago and there were intel 80 MHz at the market and no internet here. Printers were printing extremelly basic shaped and small , raw products.Everything is changing sometimes fast sometimes slowly. If you think , fender , gibson and rickenbacker is producing the same product for 60 years. They are creating new models but everyone buys 4001 , les paul etc.
When thinking lutes , Bigger the instrument , more strings may be finished with polyurethane finish might go well. I think I have to collect plan drawings. This is what I will do this summer. Than a small ad at guitar player with a big padua theorbo at hand will sell it. Ovation is using very big molds and injection molding machines. They use dead technology and rapid prototyping will kill it. They use wood veneer fiberglass composite and sound is itchy. Best , Mustafa Umut Sarac -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
