Dear David,

You wrote " You mean I should simulate on my small theorbo the conditions
imposed upon the stringing by the big ones?  I'm not so sure about that
one..."

In regards to conditions between "big" and "small" theorbos, I don't see any
difference, if the diapasons are also "small" or better said short. 
If you are using gut then to get the same amount of power that you have on a
"big" theorbo, you will need to have the basses tuned higher. Or use octaves
on the basses. This is the reason that small archlutes, swan neck baroque
lutes and "English Theorbos" had octave strings.

But I would not worry, if you have a look at the concert halls around the
world today you will find enough toy theorbos and single strung archlutes in
action, make sure to sit up front and get your own mike if you are
recording....... the main thing is that that peg box extension is visible..

All the best
Mark

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: howard posner [mailto:[email protected]] 
Gesendet: Dienstag, 17. Februar 2009 22:54
An: lutelist Net
Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Non-Toy Theorbo for sale

On Feb 17, 2009, at 12:19 PM, Mark Wheeler wrote:

> To be fair to Martyn, he is merely using one of the fundamentals of
> historical lute stringing, the highest string is tuned to the
> highest pitch
> that is possible with the thinnest useable string.
> *     *       *
> This is what they did back then, before modern stringing
> possibilities.

I'm very leery of "they" and "then," seeing as we're talking about
thousands of players and instruments over a period of 150 years or so.

Does some historical source say both "highest pitch possible" and
"thinnest useable string" in discussing theorbos?  And if so, is
there any reason to believe that every theorbist subscribed to it?
--

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