>Hi Herb, There aren't too many places on a lute where you could use screws. The soundboard and the ribs of the back are about 1/16 inch thick, and the ribs are joined edge-to-edge with only a reinforcement of paper or parchment strips on the inside. There is no substantial thickening of the ribs where the soundboard attaches to provide a place to screw into. You could assemble the peg-head with screws, and you could attach the peghead to the neck and the neck to the body with screws. But that's pretty much all of the possibilities, unless you added a lot of interior reinforcement.
And it would be a lot harder to do things that way. Wooden boats are built with screws, but the wood is many times thicker and you are not trying to join boards edge-to-edge without interior reinforcement. You would end up using hundreds of tiny screws with little holding power and the resulting instrument would not be very satisfying to play. Glue gives a continuous line of attachment, with no chance of buzzing from points that are in contact but not actually attached. And if done properly, the finished instrument will be stronger if glued. Lutes are a lot like the racing shells used in rowing competitions. They are monocoque structures which are extremely light and strong, and that affects the sound. If you assembled them any other way, you would lose the very qualities that makes their sound so appealing. Tim Motz > > >---- Original Message ---- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: RE: Non-glue construction. >Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:59:36 -0600 (CST) > >> >>Is it possible to build a good lute using screws instead of glue? >> >>Aluminum screws could be used to reduce the "dead weight" effect. >> >>The screws could be "locked" in with a tiny drop of glue at the >head. >> >> 1. How much of the gluing could be replaced with screws? >> 2. How would the sound suffer? >> 3. What are the main reasons to use glue instead of screws? >> >> >> >> >>
