Dear Rob, If you are new to the list you will have missed an interesting discussion on soundboard thicknesses on the list a few months ago - you should be able to find it in the archives. I feel that heretical thinking is a good thing! It keeps us thinking and challenging received opinions, which are sometimes wrong. But I am not sure that yours is a great heresy. Stephen Barber has long maintained that historical soundboards were thicker than the surviving instruments suggest - for more information see http://www.lutesandguitars.co.uk/. From my experience of playing Stephen & Sandi's lutes I find that I can use a very firm right hand technique (no nails), which can produce a surprising amount of volume - not enough, obviously, to drown an orchestra, but enough to be heard in a reasonably sized church or concert hall. And there are no splits or warps in the soundboards after years of use. Logic dictates that the best original Renaissance instruments must have been reasonably robust to have sustained 200 year working lives. So it might not be necessary to depart from historical principles at all to achieve your aims.
For those occasions where more volume is needed, why not use a good microphone and a PA? Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Dorsey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "List Lute" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 10:00 PM Subject: [LUTE] Heretical Thinking vis a vis Lutes > Hi All, > > Although new to the list, I'm going to put my foot into it and seek some > feedback, very candid please, I'm a big boy and can take it. As I said in my > opening post I'm a player of baroque lute, hoping to be called a competent > amateur some day, and a hobby lute builder now turned pro. I've built a few > lutes after my study with Bob Lundberg in Portland, 20 odd (and they were) > years ago and have, from playing and building, come up with some strongly > held beliefs. It these notions I'd like to share with this erudite company > in hopes of guidance and good counsel. My fear is that the first response > will be "Somebody get a rope!" but here goes: > > * Bob's lutes (of which I have two) were built exactly to historical > specifications. This is understandable given his level of scholarship. > However, the soundboard of my Dieffopruchar style, 76cm 13crs lute, from his > hand has cracked 3 times and, using nylon trebles and modern wound basses, > lives at an almost alarmingly high tension indicated by the bulge below the > bridge and the standing wave in the upper soundboard even though I keep it a > 415. Some with more experience than me have told me that that's ok and, so > long as the top of the wave doesn't interfere with the strings (!) all is > fine. That seems extreme to me so in my building I've sought to minimize > those problems. None of my instruments have cracked. All the lutes I've > bought from other builders have. Hmmmm. A new acquaintance from this list > is bringing me two lutes from his stable next week for repairs. Both have > cracks in the soundboard below the bridge. I don't like cracks. > > > > * Playing in informal ensemble - baroque flute, gamba, tenor recorder, > sometimes a baroque oboe and me on theorbo - led to a realization that it's > darned hard to hear a lute, even a 140 theorbo, and you tend to form a habit > of really bearing down to match the sound of the ensemble with the attendant > loss of tone. Playing in solo recital with more than about 10 people was the > same and Bob and I talked often about how to build a proper lute with a > pickup hidden within the body. (We imagined a removable strap button on the > butt of the lute with the amp plug underneath. You'd just thread the plug > through the strap slit and plug it in. Very stealthy, what what?) But, > failing that, you again find yourself, or at least myself, hammering the > poor instrument or vastly exceeding the string size/tension in an attempt to > be heard. This was particularly true when I used only gut trebles. Bottom > line, I always felt the lute should project better and do it without taking > on a strident tone. > > > > * Practically speaking we live in a synthetic world, string-wise. The > thinnest nylons (.40 or smaller) on the longer mensurs get really thin > sounding. Like all of us, I'm a busy person and just don't have time for the > esoteric joys of gut anymore. I just went over to my 13crs Dieffopruchar and > threw the strap around my neck. I hadn't played it since yesterday and it's > still in tune. You gotta like that. > > So here's my fix for the above, served up as beliefs in action: > > > 1. I build my lutes for a slightly higher tension than the historical > model. They are braced for that tension and are intended to be played in > either 415 or 440 at the musician's whim. That means that nylon strings and > wound basses are right in. Additionally (another heresy) I like to play with > just a bit of nail which gives the trebles a fighting chance against the big > lute's majestic basses. Also, it seems to be getting harder and harder to > find baroque flutes and recorders in A415 outside of academia. > > > > 2. I facilitate this by thickening my soundboards very slightly (2.5mm > or so), increasing the bracing a bit and adding a thin (3mm) lining all > around the body edge where the soundboard glues on. This eliminates the > chances of separation under tension around the board and provides a great > support for purfling. > > > > 3. I've come to believe that the material, much less the finish, of the > lute body has little to do with the resultant sound. It's mostly aesthetic. > What does have a big effect on the tone, other than the soundboard, is the > shape of the body which dictates the shape of the air cavity within. I've > found, and therefore build, the shallower Edlinger/Dieffopruchar style > bodies and have developed a body mold for a reasonably sized, 65cm mensur, > body fit for many applications and a big Dieffopruchar style mould for many > other applications. I've found that some of the builders who build "anything > you want" spend a hell of a lot of time building molds and jigs rather than > lutes. Bob had a whole closet full of moulds. So far I've used two molds for > everything. The exception would be a chittarone if anybody really wanted one > (takes a huge body). I'd love to build one of those. My smaller Edlinger > lute body is perfect for a renaissance or French baroque lute and the full > sized Dieffopruchar body is ideal for a big German baroque lute (76cm > mensur, 90cm on the extension), 120-140 theorbo or a renaissance base lute. > Being retired and not a terribly mercantile person to begin with, I prefer > to build what pleases me and in which I believe. > > Ok, let me have it. Regardless of your outrage, you must concede that I've > admitted these things freely. They say that's the first step toward > recovery. > > Best Regards > Rob Dorsey > Florence, KY USA > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 268.2.5/284 - Release Date: 17/03/2006 > > -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 268.2.5/284 - Release Date: 17/03/2006
