Hello all, I have a small archlute (or a liuto attiorbato that's six eggs short of a dozen) - 64cm. lower, 97cm upper, 6 or 7 single diapasons. I have taken care of courses 1 - 5 to my provisional satisfaction and now want to improve on the La Bella diapasons, if that can be done without spending well over $300 on Dan Larson's gut diapasons. This is not one of my gut-kosher instruments; anything that sounds better than the most harsh overspuns, whether a better brand/style of overspun, or some other relatively inexpensive synthetic.
I'd like to know what others are doing, and what you might recommend- all suggestions welcomed, and thanks for same. Bass string #8-E/Eb has the dual option of being outboard or inboard. As good a transition as reasonably possible from 5th to (probably) overspun 6th, and from lower to upper pegboxes is of concern. Right now it's nylon 1 & 2, KF 3, 4, & 5, and La Bella overspun for all the rest. G nom. pitch, A-415, tension 2.5 kg/string. Quick & oversimplified extended peg box lute definitions (works great for 'splainin' it all to non-lute folk): Theorbo- bass lute on a stick Archlute- Tenor lute on a stick Liuto Attiorbato- Alto lute on a short stick. I'm surprised no one knows the true historical reasons for the long neck on arch lutes- To keep that 2nd pegbox completely out of reach of the operator. Lord knows he's doing enough damage already. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
