Be very careful with alcohol unless you are certain about how your lute is finished. Some lutes are finished with a French polish, which is technique for applying shellac. Shellac is soluble in alcohol. I used to use alcohol to strip shellac from the interior woodwork of my first house, and it removes it quite effectively. Alcohol's OK around varnish, though.
Random observation: I've seen a lot of professional lutenists perform, at LSA and elsewhere. Virtually all of them play lutes with stained tops. Doesn't seem to bother them, or affect the quality of their playing. If you keep your top too clean, might folks wonder if you ever actually play it?:-) Guy -----Original Message----- From: Louis Aull [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 7:15 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] The dirt on tops I usually use rubbing alchohol and a clean old t-shirt. For really weird stains (the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd) I'll carefully use a Qtip and laquer thinner, followed by the alchohol. Obviously this is for raw spruce tops only. I loaned an 8 course to Theater Atlanta for a production of Cyrano once. His belt buckle ruined the finish and theater makup just about ruined the top. Something on his thumb ate through the finish on the back of the neck. The top cleaned up and I refinished the back and neck, it's playing again. Lou Aull -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
