Thomas, For once I was too brief - I thought I'd mentioned the surviving fixed pitch instruments, but I see I didn't (oops, that was what I meant by "comparative working"). As to the "carry" I'd say it was based less on hearing habits than actual auditory phenomena. We know that low frequencies carry, in the ocean they carry thousands of miles in whale songs and elephants use low frequencies that we can't hear to communicate over distance. In fact those low frequencies have more power. But I did use quote signs, the higher frequencies are more audible where there is background noise - as there is likely to have been.
But I was speaking of a lower tension, not a lower pitch. Given the guage (and that was a given in the original thread as it spoke of the size of the holes in the bridge) a lower pitch requires a lower tension. And there is a range of tension for all strings that is between the breaking pitch and the lack of sound that has the most power. That said I realize that it is irrelevant to the size of the bridge holes in old instruments, I fell into a standard trap of my own making. The pitch is yet defined by the vibrating length and the tension, and the breaking pitch is the same no matter the guage (within reason). I quit for the night with this thought - perhaps the string holes in the bridges of old instruments, long unused, aren't the same as they were originally. Even seasoned wood will reabsorb moisture if not protected by a varnish, and I doubt that they varnished the inside of the bridge holes. So perhaps the holes have shrunk as the wood swelled over time. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
