Hi, many many years ago I made a mistake and actually bought one of these. The sound wasn't "that" bad, but not at all lute-like. I ended up having an experienced lutemaker redoing the soundboard and fixing the pegs: adding his repairs to the price I had paid for the lute brought the total a little bit higher than the price of a decent student lute. There's a Renatus Lechner student lute for sale somewhere at EUR 1,350 with hard case. I would seriously consider going for that one or something similar from a professional lutemaker, who can eventually fix things afterwards. Unfortunately (or luckily?) lute isn't like guitar: we cannot find some horrible cheapo instrument in a shop around the corner... There's a lot of craftmanship involved in a lute. In Europe you can presently also "hire" lutes from lute societies and sometimes even from lutemakers. I would rather go down that road and forget about EMS. 400 or 500 bucks are still too much to waste on such an instrument. Just in case, have a look here: [1]http://john.redmood.com/improvebargainlute.html Best of luck, Luca Andrew White on 22/11/10 03.46 wrote:
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 n ever 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 / v alue 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 [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. http://john.redmood.com/improvebargainlute.html 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
