I have a student who came to me with one of those Pakistani lutes that he bought on eBay. I'd heard many horrible stories about these instruments, but I have to say that for him it is not a bad instrument. It is certainly not the most resonant lute, but neither is it overly heavy or guitar-like. The neck is quite straight and the string spacing is fine. The action right now is slightly higher than I like, but its within a range that could be fixed with larger frets. (It's too high for him as a beginning student, but advanced players might actually like the action where it is.) All told, I've played low-end lutes by name makers that are only marginally better, but at much higher cost.
I asked him if he did any modification and he said that he didn't know the first thing about lutes (his main instrument is bassoon) and that it came as-is right out of the box. If - and that's a big IF - I knew that all of these lutes are like this, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one to someone wanting an inexpensive entry level instrument. I've heard others say that the quality control is low on these lutes, however, so maybe my student just lucky. Chris > > > >> Hi all, > >> > >> I have a student interested in taking up the lute, > but she doesn't want to spent too much money initially. She > asked about the EMS lutes, unfortunately I have never seen > or heard one before so I can't really offer she any advise. > >> > >> I was hoping anyone familiar with these lutes > could comment on their quality / value for money, and > whether these lutes are a good option for a beginner with a > small budget. > >> > >> Cheers, > >> Andrew > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> To get on or off this list see list information > at > >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
