On Oct 1, 2006, at 4:12 PM, van Geest Gitaar & Luitbouw wrote: > 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).
I think the warnings given here should not be taken lightly. The people giving them have used the instrument in question. You are talking apples and oranges when you compare cheap guitars and cheap lutes. For $300 you can get a playable guitar because, as you mentioned, they are factory built. The user base for beginning guitars is huge. There are no factory made beginning lutes (or any other lutes) in the sense that there are manufactured guitars. It may not make sense to spend a huge amount of money on a beginning instrument, but when it comes to lutes and guitars, if the action is high, the strings buzz, the intonation sucks and it sounds bad, it can be pretty discouraging. So within reason, I think beginners should get all the instrument they can afford. They can sell it if they give up. Instruments don't loose that much value if you buy them for a reasonable price. I agree with you about the 2nd hand instrument. I would look for a used instrument if bang for buck and budget are strong considerations, with the caveat that the buyer needs to know what he is doing or have someone who does help. cheers, Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
