Dear Adam, That sounds like good news for you - presumably the crack is pretty fine. Hope it works.
MH --- On Mon, 14/5/12, Adam Olsen <[email protected]> wrote: From: Adam Olsen <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute cracking To: Cc: "Lute List" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, 14 May, 2012, 20:24 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 AA5? 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 <[1][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][2][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][3][email protected]> wrote: > > From: Adam Olsen <[3][4][email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute cracking > To: > Cc: "Lute List" <[4][5][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][6][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][7][email protected]> > > To: Lute List <[7][8][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][9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > -- > > > > References > > > > 1. [9][10]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > -- > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:[11][email protected] > 2. mailto:[12][email protected] > 3. mailto:[13][email protected] > 4. mailto:[14][email protected] > 5. [15]http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] > 6. [16]http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] > 7. [17]http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] > 8. [18]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 9. [19]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- References 1. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 2. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 3. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 4. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[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://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 10. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 11. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 12. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 13. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 14. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 15. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 16. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 17. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 18. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 19. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
