I was hoping Tim would join the discussion :) I'm interested in many aspects of conservation, but my life (and studies) didn't end up going in that direction.
I do have plans from numerous societies and builders. I love van Edwards ren lute plans, a sort of distilling of Gerle, Hieber, and Venere (3 of my favorite lutes) into one plan. Lately though I've been wondering about the original lutes. I'm working on 3D designs of molds (great for arbitrary cross-sections) with parametric measurements so I can tweak variables and observe how the volume and distribution of air moves around. (Everyone says it is important, but rarely mention the why and how of it in a way that a builder can act on.) A lot of this work is preparatory, so I can analyze the behavior of different shapes of soundboards. This is all well and good for generic designs. But little things, like the amount of "dishing" in the soundboard, and just how intentional it was... this information is scarce for historical lutes, and even where I have seen it mentioned I wonder about how the observer was interpreting the data. I'd love to be able to see the shape and the grain fibers, make some conclusions myself. Other things, like that Hieber with the flattened bottom, or others with an almost overhanging bottom: I've seen makers say this is from damage, others argue that it was intentional, or maybe something slipped or warped and the maker just went with it. Others say there just isn't enough data to tell. As with everything, I wonder about the effect of the observer's expectations, and whether people are or aren't busily and dutifully copying some mistake that bugged the hell out of the original luthier. I'm not looking for instructions from a drawing. I'm looking for data that balances out being dispassionate, unbiased, yet informed... if that is possible. I agree that a trained eye is necessary for interpreting the data, but lately I've been wondering whether a "fair witness" eye that simply recorded what they saw without interpretation might be better for the actual collection of that data. Thanks, everyone, for your input. I think it's time to dip my toes into the museum drawings, see for myself how they mesh with the work I am doing. - Ben To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
