Ed Dubrow: I was just wondering if people tune their Baroque lutes at 440. How many other people do? How many at a lower pitch?
Dear luteners, When I received it in May 2003, my 13 c. was tuned to 440. The strings were put by the luthier having 440 in mind. In my very first lesson with it, my teacher suggested to lower it to 415. We did it immediately, and the sound improved a lot. Wanting to know what would happen, we lowered it at once still another half tone, to 392, and the sound was even better! He suggested to lower that much because he was playing in those weeks with his wife, a traverso player, some french music, and her Hotteterre traverso is at 392. After some months at 392 I retuned the lute weeks ago to 415: the feeling with 392 was a bit "gummie". Now the tension is ok for me, and the sound is nice. All this down and up retuning occurred without changing strings, of course. Saludos from Barcelona Manolo Laguillo
