Hi Joe,
The continued discussion of finger position brought to mind some of the mechanical aspects of the lute as well as well. Robert Lundberg in his wonderful book on lute construction insists that the bowls of historical lutes were shaped down on the sides from in front of the bridge to the rose to allow more clearance for the strings. I know that this lowering of the sides could also have been due to repair or correction of the neck angle. Raising the neck angle without removing the neck causes the sides of the bowl to bow out and lower slightly. But in looking at pictures of players hand's and instruments of of all kinds, guitars, lutes, banjos, a perfectly made instrument may wind up in the hands of anyone. A bridge low enough to allow the pinky to rest on the soundboard will find itself torn to shreads by the pick of a strum player (see Willie Nelson). Perhaps Robert was actually seeing the truth here. Look at the finger rest that Chet Atkins used to get the rest point up to his very short pinky, yet keep the clearance for pick work. As the necks got longer and peg boxes got heavier, the neck angle naturally rises to reduce this weight. At 45 degrees, the weight is half that of 90 degrees. As the neck comes up, the right wrist rotates to a position more in parallel with the strings and the pinky has a natural tendancy to come off the sound board. This allows the builder to raise the bridge to get more sound and protect the soundboard from pick damage. Lutes in the 18th century tend to have higher bridges. Once the bridge is raised, it's over for the pinky without a finger rest or placing the pinky on the bridge. The smudge would have been left on some strings. (could the smudgeless soundboards have had a Chet Atkins finger rest?) At the end of a three hour set, hows your wrist? Louis Aull Phone: 770.978.1872 Fax: 866.496.4294 Cell:404.932.1614 -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
