From what I remember about surviving museum specimens, ultra-thin necks didn't arrive until quite late. There's a Hoffmann 13c lute with a neck only 3/8" thick where it meets the pegbox, though, of course, there's quite a camber on the fingerboard that makes up for it, to some extent.
In contrast there's an ivory-backed 11c in the Victoria and Albert collection (C17?) with a whopper of a neck - almost 3/4" thick at the nut end, but with very little camber on the fingerboard. I made a replica of this one (not ivory!) and it's comfortable to play, though people do comment on the heftiness of the neck. [1]http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/14513 So on the basis of very few examples, I've a hunch that lutes of up to 10 courses (and maybe beyond) would have had fairly thick necks and flattish fingerboards. Bill From: Sean Smith <[email protected]> To: lute <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 14 November 2012, 23:40 Subject: [LUTE] Re: 8-ch lute strings spacing My medium hands love my fat necks. I have an E lute made from an old vandervogel guitar and Mel was constrained by the join to keep the neck join pretty thick. He offered to take it down later if it got to be a bear but I like it. Probably not optimal for most but it works just fine for me. My one older "butterknife neck" 8-c is the hardest to switch to. Sean On Nov 14, 2012, at 3:14 PM, Edward Mast wrote: String spacing is indeed most important. But I rarely (never?) see mentioned thickness of the neck. For a couple of years I played an 8 course lute with a rather thin neck, which I assumed to be normal. Then I got an 8 course with a thicker neck and found (I do have large hands) that barred chords that had been difficult on the thinner neck were considerably easier on the thicker neck. I quickly got rid of the thinner neck instrument. Perhaps something else to consider when buying a lute . . . Ned On Nov 14, 2012, at 5:52 PM, Luca Manassero wrote: > Dear list, > five years ago at the Neuburg (Bavaria) Summer Academy I happened > to try an 8 course lute built for a friend of mine by Martin Shepherd: > the strings spacing fitted so perfectly that later on I e-mailed Martin > to have "his" strings spacing. I still use it on all my Renaissance > instruments. > In any case all lutemakers I approached over the last seven years > ALWAYS asked me "my" strings spacing requirements: they NEVER simply > used their without asking first. > Last but not least, I have played a few "exact copies" of museum > instruments: in all cases an extremely narrow strings spacing made them > almost unplayable (to me). Having big hands I don't see why I should > play on a very narrow, mandolin-like neck. What if the original > instrument (aka Gerle...) was originally built for a 10 years old > little girl? > Luca > David Tayler on 14/11/12 18.29 wrote: > > It depends on the player, the technique and the size of the hands, the > width of the fingers, etc., but in the critical spacing of the first > three courses I would not go below 5mm center to enter between pairs > and below 11.5 between the chanterelle and the next string over, if the > top string is single. There is a cross point at the plucking point that > is the real figure, that is, the width where the string plucked. As for > the other courses, it also depends on the string material. For an early > style lute, you can also use a "close parallel" spacing, but unless the > maker knows how to do it, I would not try it. > The reach of the hand is important in an eight course instrument, but > that depends on the hand. So at eight courses, you may have to compress > the spacing slightly if reach is an issue. If they live in California, > I can take a look, but otherwise you may have to rely on a generic > pattern, or borrow a few instruments to see if they fit. It's like > buying shoes. You can ask what shoe size you need, but you still have > to wear them. Ninety percent of lutes have the wrong spacing, so it is > worth getting it right when it is built. > dt > --- On Sun, 11/4/12, Jerzy Zak [1]<[2][email protected]> wrote: > > From: Jerzy Zak [2]<[3][email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] 8-ch lute strings spacing > To: "lute mailing list list" [3]<[4][email protected]> > Date: Sunday, November 4, 2012, 5:06 PM > > Dear Lutelist, > A student of mine is expacting a new 8-ch lute. The maker has little > experience with an instrument of such number of courses. So we all need > some advice from you. We need a typical spacing on both sides of > strings, aEUR|if there is such "typical" spacing, of course. Anyway, at > least a distance between the outer strings would be of help, if not all > measurements. > Thanks in advance! > Jerzy Z > --- > To get on or off this list see list information at > [1][4][5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > References > > 1. [5][6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > References > > 1. mailto:[7][email protected] > 2. mailto:[8][email protected] > 3. mailto:[9][email protected] > 4. [10]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 5. [11]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- References 1. http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/14513 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 7. mailto:[email protected] 8. mailto:[email protected] 9. mailto:[email protected] 10. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 11. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
