Rob, talking about nails, I have two questions for you - didn't you complain that your guittar made a lot of noise during recording, like buzzing and clashing? How much of it might have been due to nails? The other question is, you used two different pitches, right? Which ones, and did you change strings or not? Did pitch have an effect on the noise? What about using the capo (more than two questions, I know...) - what effect did that have for you?
When I recorded Demarzi and the Irish pieces I thought I would use nails to contrast better against the continuo, but it was just too noisy. My nails are quite hard, and even having them just long enough to support the flesh causes a lot of noise. Plus, there is a brittle quality to the sound that, strangely enough, isn't there with a plectrum. We also did test recordings at two different pitches, 440 and 415, and settled on 415 - my instrument is more resonant there. I believe you tune lower, don't you? Eph Segerman suggests 380 for the 18th-c cittern - somewhere between modern Bb and A. My Preston just doesn't sound good there, and believe me, I've tried many different string gauges, tensions, etc. My new instrument is larger, with a 50cm string length, and it too is more resonant at 415, tuned in C rather than A (so modern B). Carlo probably tuned the top and chamber there as it has a lovely ring that it just doesn't have pitched anywhere else. Doc To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
