At 02:57 PM 6/5/2008, LGS-Europe wrote: >How do people make their (medieval) plectra? I have chopped up and sanded >down some turkey feathers, different techniques, different >thickness/stiffnes, but I'm only half convinced of the sound. > >Advice much appreciated. > >David - To be honest, I still like my Fender heavy best, but it looks soo >un-cool on stage. ;-)
I don't use quill on medieval lutes, but I do on early Neapolitan mandolins (which use strings of silver-wound silk on g, twisted brass harpsichord wire on d', plain brass wire on a' and octave g', and gut on e''). I have used goose quill prepared following this procedure: <http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=263874652887a855b1a3a0ff8f6a6f14;act=ST;f=6;t=15088> Personally, no matter how much I practice the fabrication of such things, natural quill simply is terribly variable. Some will make exquisite sounding and playing plectra and some will sound thin and tinny; some will be long-lived and some will split along their length almost immediately; etc. I have found excellent and consistent results using a particular model of Bic pen: <https://www.bicpens.com/2007/BRSG.cfm> Best, Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
