> > 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. > The glass bridges were common from 1900 to 1945. Boehm used them and the Markneukirchen industry, too. They give a bright sound, but I have no clue how to make adjustments. They are formed to fit a slight convex soundboard and have cut in grooves for the strings. The top edge is roof-like. To speak of bodies: as I mentioned before, the Markneukirchen industrie (Saxony) had separate branches that worked together, so the bodies with slightly arched back out of 7, nine or more stripes of wood were produced by the "Schachtelmacher" (literally: box-maker), whereas all backs in the Hamburg area were almost flat with two or three supporting ribs. The arched, dome- lens-like "Schachtel" (body) was used in Waldzithern and the type of Mandolin, that was perhaps in some way the Saxonian answer to the Waldoline. GEWA copied that style since 1970, still in stripes and pieces, but almost flat again and with different wood colours for a showy effekt. GEWA originally came from Markneukirchen, too, but settled in Mittenwald, Bavaria, after World War II.
Martina -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
