> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 06:41:48 EDT > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [email protected] > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Diuers Dygressions & Questiones > > In einer eMail vom 27.10.2006 09:07:42 Westeurop=E4ische Sommerzeit schreibt > [EMAIL PROTECTED]: > >> Just trying to learn this strange foreign language (English) here: is >> there a difference between an arched and a vaulted back/top or are they >> just two words for the same thing? >> > > Frank, > Your English is excellent - I particularly like the Tudor spelling in your > subject line! ;-) > > To my mind, terminology is the bane (curse) of organology. A *-JPG is worth a > thousand words, and there's nothing like taking an instrument in your hands > and getting the look and feel of it. > > Failing that, just let me describe my Waldzither. Forgive my not giving exact > dimensions, but I've just lent it to someone: > > It has a tear-drop body outline, very similar to the English and Portuguese > guitars, and a 9-screw, fanned tuning machine with square ends for the key. > The neck joins the body at the 10th fret, the upper part of the fingerboard > being glued to the top and ending with a curve parallel to the edge of the > round sound-hole, which has no rosette. > The bridge that was on it when I bought it is made of glass. > > The body is much deeper at the pin-block than at the neck joint. The bottom > edges of the ribs (the members perpendicular to the top) have a gentle, convex > curve. > The back is built of 7 parallel staves, which are apparently slightly wider > in the middle than at the ends, because the back has a slight but noticeable > curve from side to side, as well as from end to end. It is sort of "spherical" > or "lens-shaped". > > My first impression on seeing this instrument in a junk shop was that the > body was "a cross between a guitar and a lute". The vertical ribs of the > guitar > body are there, but the "vaulting" (as I term it) of the back means that it is > stable without the guitar's internal cross bracing. The statics are thus > similar to the lute's. > > What breed of Waldzither is this? (Marion?) > > Interestingly, I also possess a new (1980s), cheap, eastern European, > electric-acoustic mandoline which, apart from the Embergher headstock, the > kidney-shaped sound-hole and the inductive pick-up, is a perfectly scaled-down > version > of my Waldzither. The staves of the back are roughly the same width as the > Waldzither's, so there are only 5 instead of 7, but the central one is fitted > to > the heel of the neck in exactly the same way. > > Is this what one would call a "Waldoline" copy? > > Then I have a German Mandriola ("12-string mandolin"), which is almost > identical to the cheap mandolin in size, shape and style of headstock, and > proportions of the ribs. However, its back is not made of staves, but rather > of > lozenges and triangles of different woods arranged radially around a central > button. > Two friends of mine have mandolins of similar build. They have the same > "vaulted" back as the version with parallel staves. > > How would one categorise these instruments? > > Didn't some Renaissance citterns also have backs built of staves, rather than > the more usual wide panels? > > In my own modest collection, I have three distinct body types in fretted > instruments: > > The lute and Neapolitan mandolin, with a back consisting entirely of > self-supporting, barrel-like staves, without ribs; > > The Spanish guitar, with vertical ribs and a back made of wide, flat, > book-matched panels with internal bracing, and parallel to the top; > > And the Waldzither and cheap mandolin with vertical ribs and a > self-supporting, "vaulted" back built of curved staves, not parallel to the > top. > > I regard the radial panels of the Mandriola as a variant of the Waldzither > build. I have seen photos of Mandriolas with the staves arranged as a fan, > converging on the heel of the neck - which I see as another variation on the > Waldzit > her form. > > These are what I personally mean when I talk about "lute/bowl", "flat" and > "vaulted " backs. > > Cheers, > John D. >
John; I wonder if slightly "domed" back might be a better term and descriptor for your convex-lens-shaped back -- thus reserving "vaulted" for some other of the more aggressive vihuela-like back-vaulting schemes seen on some ancient instruments and even on many modern Mexican, Central, and South American, or even Caribbean, instruments. I notice you mention the "glass" bridge on your instrument. I've noticed those in the last few days saying to myself "what the f__k is that", a dummy stand-in for a lost original? How well do they work in practice? Assuming you get a good fit and a perfectly flat top I imagine they'd give a very crisp bright sound. Are there notches filed into the top edge. I assume the top edge is rounded over well enough to provide a fairly narrow crisp edge? Any kind of custom re-shaping or action adjustments must be a beeatch. Thanks Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
