It is worth the effort to play. You also have to attack the first course a bit differently than you may be accustomed to with a single string, maybe not, it depends on how good your overall technique is. It is essential that your attack comes just in exactly the same way it does for the doubled second and third, mostly from above and down, not below and across. If you do this you will be amazed at the beautiful ressonance produced. With a single first it is possible to get a decent sound out of a single string even if it is played not quite correctly. Because of this we tend to become a bit lazy on the first course becaue we are not aware that something is wrong. However with a doubled first if it is not played right there is a big chance you will get the two strings to rattle together producing what is best described as a fret rattle. It is a nasty sound and should be avoided.
Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "LGS-Europe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute net" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 3:24 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: double fisrst course > > For what it's worth I have been using a doubled first course on an eight > > course Lute for almost thirty years. It produces a beautiful sound and I > > recomened it to anyone. I can tell you what the major draw back is. > > Understand that I do not use Gut, so perhaps that might rule me out of the > > argument, but when one of the members of the doubled first starts going > > false the effects are really noticeable. I have had good luck in > > switching > > the strings around bridge to peg-wise and this works pretty well. But I > > suspect that it is this problem that percipitated the historical > > acceptance > > of the single first course. > > Thanks for your insights. > I do use gut, and that might promise to increase the problems you encounter, > so it's possible I will not quite equal your thirty years of double first. > ;-) But, I will give it a try. > > David > > www.davidvanooijen.nl > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
