Yes, Toyohiko Satoh has an ivory lute; it is a Burkholtzer by Ruchard Berg. It is identical to my Berg Burkholtzer, with exception that the back on my lute is Brazilian rosewood. I think the wooden back sounds much nicer than the ivory backed lute.
ed At 08:34 AM 11/24/03 -0500, Miles Dempster wrote: >T. Satoh had an ivory-backed baroque lute made by an Ottawa maker. > >Miles Dempster > >On Monday, November 24, 2003, at 02:31 AM, Ed Durbrow wrote: > > > At 9:01 AM +0000 03/11/23, Sandi Harris & Stephen Barber wrote: > >> The > >> rosewood was an attempt to get near to the sound that ivory produces, > >> using a hard material, which is of course always very > >> beautifully-veined > >> and figured, as well as sounding well > > > > I was just talking with a bagpipe player about ivory and it set me to > > thinking. Has anyone made any modern reproductions of lutes with > > ivory backs? I can't remember the context but I remember reading > > somewhere about ivory backed theorbos being very loud. > > > > They cull elephants in South Africa and there is an abundance of > > mammoth ivory, so there is legal ivory about. I suppose enough ivory > > for a lute back would not be cheap no matter what the source. I was > > wondering about the brittleness also. Lute ribs have quite a bend to > > them. I wonder if mammoth ivory would be too brittle. > > -- > > Ed Durbrow > > Saitama, Japan > > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > > >
