"The price of secondhand lutes is more difficult. A good lute gets
better with age, and perhaps the price should reflect that..."
Martin, I suspect that you and I have been experiencing quite different
used/old lutes. Of course, you do specify "good" lute; but as an active
lute teacher here in Berkeley I can tell you that the instruments that
my beginning players bring- or obtain out of the LSA's rental stable-
weren't nearly good enough to begin with, or we need to wait a few more
aeons for them to come up to par. I should be getting kickbacks from all
the lutes my students have been commissioning from various builders here
in North America. But you seem to see more clearly than I did the
pitfalls of mentioning luthiers by name in Roman's article.
For a good discussion in regard to lute/luthier pricing- with a little
necessary cold water in the face- I highly reccomend (in addition to
Martin's own site) Mel Wong's blog site, "Black Bird String Arts":
http://www.blackbirdstringarts.com/about/
Dan
On 10/15/2014 11:14 AM, Martin Shepherd wrote:
Well, Roman, I can see why you upset a few people.
I think mentioning lute makers or players by name, whether what you
say about them is positive or negative, is just a bad idea - and
arguably downright rude. If your comment is positive, someone reading
it might wonder if you have an axe (sorry, no pun intended) to grind;
if negative, your opinion is hard to judge and is almost inevitably
biased and based on limited evidence.
The price of a lute is difficult to make a judgement about. The price
of new lutes is way too low - consider what a decent hand-made cello
would cost! That's not because cello makers are greedy people, it's
just that the price of a cello more accurately reflects the amount of
work and expertise which goes into it. Even a cello maker earns less
than a plumber or electrician.
The price of secondhand lutes is more difficult. A good lute gets
better with age, and perhaps the price should reflect that, but it's
surprising how few people ask more than they paid, even if they've had
the lute for a number of years. So sometimes there are excellent
bargains to be had in the "for sale" columns.
My site also has a page on buying a lute, including advice on what to
look for in a secondhand lute.
All the best,
Martin
On 15/10/2014 17:30, r.turov...@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Collective Wisdom,
Recently I had a few unpleasant conversations with some lute sellers,
whose sales were thwarted by the advice given by me.
Therefore I've decided to update and revise an old article of mine to
reflect the practicalities of buying used lutes. So now I'm canvassing
for ideas that can be added to it -
http://polyhymnion.org/swv/theaxe.html
Reply publicly!
RT
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