I will report back. Also, the maker says if I have any pressing problems he'll take care of it for me - he says he visits the US quite often, so I wouldn't have to ship it out to New Zealand.
Nice guy, I want to go on record saying that I'd recommend him to anyone :) (it's Jason Petty, btw) Adam On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 3:23 PM, William Samson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hope everything works out fine. > > Please let us know how you get on. > > Bill > > From: Adam Olsen <[email protected]> > To: > Cc: Lute List <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, 14 May 2012, 20:24 > > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute cracking > > I just dropped the lute off at the Violin builder shop. It's Peter > Prier and sons Violins, they make, repair, and have a violin building > school. > > He thinks he can have it fixed by tomorrow. He seemed to know a bit > about lutes, and he was pretty confident about fixing it correctly. > However, he said a lot of stuff that didn't "jive" with what you all > have already told me. He's already got it in his hands, and he's > already probably started on it. > > His repair method would be the following: > > Pump hide glue into the crack, and then lower the tension on all the > strings. He believes it will then close the crack and let the glue > dry. > > Some other things he mentioned: > > 1. Just gluing another piece of wood into the crack would cause more > problems, because the top wouldn't expand and contract uniformly. > 2. That because I have had the lute in Utah for 3 months, it should > already be climatized, and using 3 humidifiers might actually be > causing more problems. He recommends that I don't use the dampit at > all anymore, and that I should consider not using any case humidifier; > that it is the constant change of humidity from storing it in a humid > case and then practicing in a dry room that is most likely to cause > issues. > 3. He believes it was more the tension of the strings that probably > caused the crack, not the humidity. > 4. He did say that there was the possibility of the grains around the > glued crack breaking, that the glue would be stronger than the grain > itself. > > Anyway, when I pick it up tomorrow, I know I'm going to have issues > bringing it back into tune. Is there a sheet online that would list > all the pitches of all the strings on a baroque lute tuned at A=415? > With the base string octaves listed like D3 and D4, or something > similar? > > Thank you > > On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Adam Olsen <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hrmm, this is probably what I'm going to do. There's a few local >> violin shops. I called one and they asked me to bring it in for an >> estimate. >> >> Thanks again for the advice >> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 9:48 AM, Martyn Hodgson >> <[1][email protected]> wrote: >> >> Dear Adam, >> >> It may need repairing rather than doing nothing and running the risk of >> it extending further. But it may not be necessary to remove the belly >> to effect a repair. >> >> Presumably the crack tapers to nothing and is reasonably straight - so >> a sliver of wood (tapering to a feather) is required which can be glued >> into the crack and then with a fine sharp knife (disposal scalpel say) >> cut level to the belly. Obviously when inserting the sliver you'll need >> to judge when it's at the right depth (ie at same thickness as the >> belly). Whether or not the crack will need to be cleaned out before >> doing this is something one could only tell from a close inspection. >> It's perfectly possible to do this yourself if you're confident of your >> woodworking abilities but, if not, take it to a violin repairer to do >> since they will use animal glue which is reversible and will also be >> probably used to repairing such cracks. Incidentally the glue will act >> as a lubricant to help slide the sliver into place - but have a few >> dummy runs since it needs to be done smartly with little time for fine >> adjustments before the glue starts to gel >> >> Make quite a few slivers to try dummy runs on a simulated crack in a >> piece of spruce and also to select the piece likely to fit best. Use a >> chisel along the edge of a quarter sawn piece of spruce thicknessed to >> just over the belly thickness to slice off the slivers in thin tapered >> sections. Obviously you'll need to ensure the end grain runs in the >> same direction as the belly. >> >> Whoever is doing the repair, it will be best not to keep raising the >> humidity around the instrument but to let it rest in ambient humidity - >> so that the sliver is glued into place with the crack at its widest. >> >> MH >> --- On Mon, 14/5/12, Adam Olsen <[2][email protected]> wrote: >> >> From: Adam Olsen <[3][email protected]> >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute cracking >> To: >> Cc: "Lute List" <[4][email protected]> >> Date: Monday, 14 May, 2012, 16:18 >> >> Thank you for the information. >> If it's just cosmetic, I won't worry about it too much. All I really >> care about is that I can still play, and that it won't happen again. >> I'm really at a loss as to how to keep it humidified enough. The >> humidity in my house is around 30%, and it's at 50% in the case. >> I wonder if it's because I drive it to lessons and etc, and I do bring >> it out for at least an hour every night to practice. >> Anyway, thanks again >> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:47 AM, William Samson >> <[5][email protected]> wrote: >> > The first thing to say is that small cracks are usually harmless - >> > The trouble is that the best way to repair them and stop them >> > spreading involves taking the soundboard off, which is best left to >> a >> > maker. >> > >> > If the crack is unlikely to spread ( - and if there's a curved >> J-bar >> > under the soundboard it shouldn't go beyond that - ) a cosmetic >> repair >> > would be a straightforward job for any maker - gluing in a thin, >> > matching spline to fill it, for example. >> > >> > It's hard to be sure the action is rising if you don't have any >> earlier >> > measurements of it. I'd suggest measuring the height of the first >> > string above the fingerboard (not above a fret) at the position of >> the >> > 8th fret. If this is no more than 4mm the action should be OK - >> but >> > you should still note your measurement and the date for comparison >> with >> > later measurements. Any higher than 4mm starts to make playing >> tough >> > and a maker should be consulted. There are straighforward ways of >> > fixing a slightly high action - differently graded frets for >> example, >> > along with a lower nut, which isn't a big job - but in extreme >> cases >> > the lute will need more major work to adjust it. >> > >> > I've found that the most common cause of cracking is extreme >> changes in >> > humidity. If the humidity is stable, the wood shouldn't shrink and >> > crack. As you probably know, Thomas Mace's answer to this was to >> keep >> > his lute in a bed. >> > >> > Good luck with this. >> > >> > Bill >> > From: Adam Olsen <[6][email protected]> >> > To: Lute List <[7][email protected]> >> > Sent: Monday, 14 May 2012, 4:46 >> > Subject: [LUTE] Lute cracking >> > I have a 13 course lute that was built in New Zealand, and is now >> in >> > SLC, Utah. >> > There's definitely a crack forming just to the right of the heart >> > decoration at the bottom of the soundboard (toward the treble >> side). >> > I've got the dampit in there which I wet every other day (this is >> > what the maker recommended, there is a hole where the strap peg >> > usually goes, and a dampit fits), and then >> > two oasis case humidifers in the case. I have a hydrometer that >> reads >> > around 50 all the time, or sometimes just below. >> > The action seems to be getting a bit higher. Is it possible it's >> > cracking from too much humidity? >> > Is there something I can do to stop it? I'm worried about it >> getting >> > worse. >> > I just got this lute in February after waiting since 2007 to get >> one. >> > I'm really kind of bummed out about this. Any help would be >> greatly >> > appreciated. >> > To get on or off this list see list information at >> > [1][8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >> > -- >> > >> > References >> > >> > 1. [9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >> -- >> >> -- >> >> References >> >> 1. mailto:[email protected] >> 2. mailto:[email protected] >> 3. mailto:[email protected] >> 4. mailto:[email protected] >> 5. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] >> 6. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] >> 7. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] >> 8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> 9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > > > >
