Now we're getting somewhere:
>If you are getting a carbon-fiber shell from him thats more interesting, >figure out a way to join it to a traditional top and thats a lot of work >saved, could be worth a couple hundred to a busy luthier. I suspect >carbon-fiber would make a good body, assuming hide glue works. And if it >doesnt, maybe they can work in a light-wood rim around the inside (willow, >poplar...). >-- >Dana Emery -But he has made an appalling & premature marketing blunder, putting this out on a wide-ranging lute list such as ours which is generally more performer/music/scholar oriented. Plus we are (mostly) far more concerned with sorting out the formidable problems of the traditional lute mysteries that we still don't know, to expand our attention bandwidth to take in these high-tech developments from the "other end" of the cosmic temporal spectrum. I, (for one), am still not nearly as interested in "21st century lutes" as I am in 15th to 18th century lutes. He should be pitching this to luthiers; who could perhaps order parts, or segments, of instruments- for student lutes, low-end, "beach" lutes, or travel instruments. Carbon fiber has found its way into many areas where its qualities of lightness, stiffness, & flexibility make it more of a direct asset- e.g., fly fishing rods, inexpensive but functional low-end instrument bows (my son started with one on the double bass) & archery equipment- arrows & limb laminations. One appalling by-product of this is the use of ulta-thin wood laminates OVER the carbon, so that a "high tech" archery bow looks like it's made from wood. Fake yew carbon lute ribs? Or even fake "spruce" tops? Actually, this has already happened to some guitars; but without the cosmetic hypocrisy. I'm not sure we are the market for this guy- at least not yet, and certainly not as presented. Dan -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
