Alright, I done it. Put the vihuela into 1/4 comma meantone, or close to. It is a copy of the Chambure artifact, built by Sandi Harris & Stephen Barber- 64.5 cm. Strings are all gut, Universale .42 mm double first (very durable, best by far) 2 - 6 from Dan Larson, Pistoy 5th & 6th, old 1st generation loaded for 7th, 8ves on 6 & 7. http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa44/danwinheld/?action=view¤t=Tastini.jpg
Tuning & fret placement done with a Violab tuner. No measuring or calculating, set the thing for "1/4", pitch A=395 and matched all pitches- open strings and fretted- to tuner by ear. Good ear training, no brain training. Perfect! http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa44/danwinheld/?action=view¤t=Tuner.jpg The tastini are celluloid scraps salvaged from an old guitar bridge piece, attached with Bohning fletch tape- a double sided sticky tape for attaching feather fletchings to arrow shafts. Almost 2 mm wide, perfectly matching the tastini width. Attaches to a length of celluloid, cut to size, peel off safety film, and stick to finger board- "Vihuela!". This tape does leave some wiggle, but less wiggle than a tightly tied fret. Fine tuned tastini height by razor blade scraping to eliminate fret buzzing. 4th course G# needs to be pushed forward a little sharper, though. http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa44/danwinheld/?action=view¤t=Fletchtape.jpg http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa44/danwinheld/?action=view¤t=Celluloid.jpg So far very happy with results, vihuela never sounded better. Even Dowland, (yeah, it's a vihuela- so sue me!) but thanks to 1st fret in A-b position no more E major chord in first position with the 2nd finger barring E & B (courses 2&3) while 1st finger plays the high G# at the first fret. Now it's a 4th position bar chord- win win all around. Dan W -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
