Is this thing, identified variously as a lute (which it is in the organological sense of the word) or an ud (of which it is certainly not a typical example), a one-off creation, or is it part of some standard instrument-making tradition in eastern Europe or Asia?
http://www.civilization.ca/tresors/immigration/im0300be.html Daniel Heiman -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
