Dear Bill, It all depends what you mean by scalloped: ranging from a smooth curved section (like the Chambure 'vihuela') through to most curve at the rib extremities - as more commonly found on old instruments and also depicted in some iconography. I presume you're asking about the latter.
Like you, I find this comes about naturally as the rib is bent to the mould - but I do notice that it becomes more pronounced with time - I have a 35 year old lute which had almost flat ribs but which now has adopted a concave/scalloped section over time as the various stresses take effect. One other possibility to produce even more pronounced 'peaks' ( ie flat in the middle but most curving at the extremities) has been suggested by (I think) Martin Shepherd: this is to make the joint between each rib edge slightly open at the inner edge so that the glue, when contracting and pulling the edges together, creates the peaked effect. I suspect many of us may (subconsciously?) make the joint this way - not so much to produce a peak but to ensure that the outer surface of the joint (which shows) is 'perfect'. rgds Martyn --- On Fri, 18/5/12, William Samson <[email protected]> wrote: From: William Samson <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Scalloped ribs To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, 18 May, 2012, 19:32 Hi, If it isn't a trade secret, I wonder if anybody can tell me how to get scalloped ribs? I know that ribs do tend to scallop a little bit, naturally, when the bowl is put together, but I have seen lutes with an altogether more pronounced scalloping. This feature also appears in a lot of the iconography, such as Caravaggio's well-known lute player. Thanks! Bill -- To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
