Hi Robin, If you're looking for a good starter lute (a student lute) 2500 bucks is a lot. Here in Europe the prices for student lutes hover around 1500 euro. The EMS lutes are good for their price. Don't expect a high quality lute, but with some adjustments (tuning pegs adjustment, new frets, and other minor work) you can have a good playing lute. It doesn't have the tone of a handbuild lute, but you can't expect that from a cheap instrument. It's also a lot heavier then a handbuild lute. Most people here in the group would not advice you to buy the ems (or Pakistani) lute. But look at it this way. Would you advise a beginning guitar-player to buy a handbuild guitar of around 2500 dollars, when they can learn it on a decent factory instrument of around 300 bucks? My advise: search for a second hand lute (but I don't know if you can find one at 800 dollars) or buy the ems one, and bring it to a luthier (who builds lutes) for a decent setup (this will cost you about 150 dollars more, but it's worth it).
Greetings, and may Ogyruan be with you, Ernstjan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ernstjan van Geest - Luthier van Geest Gitaar & Luitbouw - Hasselt, Belgium www.vangeest.be 011 / 43.77.71 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: Mosabi Greyfox [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Verzonden: zondag 1 oktober 2006 2:28 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: [LUTE] EMS lutes Good or Bad Greetings! Hi everyone! I am new to the lute list and to lutes. I have been looking every where for a good starter lute. I have talked to a friend of mine who is a luthier. He said I should expect to spend in the range of $2500 (can) and up for a decent lute. See I am a guitar player and the most expensive guitar I own is only $800 so I am not in a big hurry drop that much cash. So that brings me to my question to all of you. I have been looking at 7 course lute made by EMS in england. [1]www.e-m-s.com This model hovers around $780 can in various stores. I have read a few reviews on this lute and the seem pretty good. But one person reviewed it as unplayable. I asked my luthier if he knew about this brand but he did not. So the question is: Is this lute a good buy? Has anyone played a lower end EMS? Thanks everyone for your time! Robin {Bard in training} References 1. http://www.e-m-s.com/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
