Dear Christopher, I do not know of a used vihuela currently, but in answer to your question about courses, the most usual & customary instrument contains 6 courses. Fuenllnana writes about 5 course instruments. John Ward talks & gives examples of musicians using 7 course vihuelas, and Bermudo discusses the various tunings of the 7 course vihuela.
I have never heard of a vihuela using 8 courses. ed At 06:52 AM 2/28/04 -0800, Christopher Schaub wrote: >Ok, I'm seriously looking for a vihuela. A used vihuela would be great, a >Cezar >Mateus would be wonderful. I remember that Ariel Abramovich had one for sale a >while back. Does anyone know his current e-mail address? Thanks for any >opinions or leads. Oh, has anyone seen a vihuela with more than 8 courses? Did >anything this large exist? Just curious.
