Dear Benjamin, and all,
My lute building career ceased before I finished my first real one
(still have the form and the body staves I'd made), so what I say may be
irrelevant. My interest moved to the Celtic harp, but I did make - and
still play - the "flat back" lute from Musikits (13 string, 7 course). I
would guess that the average depth of the "flat back" is similar to the
Edlinger's that I saw on web sites. As the principle of Musikits (Jerry
Brown) was a player of 12 string guitar he designed this so one could
make a lute shaped 12 string guitar or a 13 string lute by filing the
string slots in the bridge and nut - he expected most would make the
guitar.
Some years back I attended a master class run by Ronn McFarlane (as a
listener) and brought my "flat back". After the class I asked Ronn if he
would play it and give me his opinion. For some reason, probably as he
was a bit wrapped up in the master class, he didn't notice that it was a
"flat back" (guitar profile with a lute shape). He played a bit and
commented that it had a "sweet" sound - which I interpreted to be that
it was different, but nice.
My own ear, listening from the same chair where I'd been for the master
class students and Ronn's demonstrations for them on several different
"real lutes", would agree with your speculation. The sound was less
complex, and therefore what Ronn called "sweet". It was not a small
sound, nor a "thin" sound - one might call it a "clean" sound. As to
projection, it was similar to the other lutes, although that was hard to
tell as all the students had 9 or more courses giving a fuller bass.
Let me digress into my totally amateur observations on sound production.
You mentioned sound being "trapped in the belly", an interesting
thought. I am in continual gentle argument with fellow harpists on the
effect of the body of the harp on the sound - the woods and the shapes.
The harp is unique to our stringed instruments - the strings pull
directly from the soundboard, and most of the strings are harmonics
(even if distant harmonics) from all the other strings. The object of
the body of the harp is to support the sound board and not damp the
vibrations of the sound board. The object of the soundboard is to pass
the vibrations to the sympathetic strings. The sound production and
complexity is almost all from the strings to the air.
On the other hand, the lute, the violin, the guitar, and all the others
of that family use the body of the instrument to "mix" the sound. Note:
harps don't have sound holes, the others do. The lute family transmits
the vibration of the plucked or bowed string to the body through a
bridge (the complex bridge of the violin family must have something to
do with the way it is transmitted, can't see why it would be that way
otherwise). That means the resonance of the body, and the contained air
"column", must have something to do with the sound. I would guess that,
unlike the harp, the shape and wood of the body and the air "column"
would have a great deal to do with the complexity and projection of the
sound.
The modern solid electric guitar uses electronics rather than an air
column to transmit the vibrations, we can drop it as a design for a lute
(although I'm sure one could make one that would sound almost
authentic). Any instrument that uses air "column" needs an exit, else
the air won't vibrate and resonate - it will just "bounce back and
forth" and the instrument will sound "dead".
Wow, a lot of verbiage from one who is not an expert. I'd be interested
to hear from real luthiers whether I'm off base, on base, or a couple of
steps away. There must have been a reason for Edlinger to make the lute
this way, perhaps it was for the "sweetness".
Best, Jon
On 10/18/2013 3:04 PM, BENJAMIN NARVEY wrote:
Dear All,
I am getting a small theorbo made after Edlinger, but my lute maker
feels the model is excessively thin; she is worried about
sound/projection. I should think the sound may be less complex than
deeper lutes, but perhaps I will have more projection since less sound
will get trapped in the belly.
Does anyone have experience with Edlinger-type models? I would like to
stay as close to the original body as possible and see what happens,
but the maker has never made anything so shallow before and is getting
slightly cold feet about it.
Any and all thoughts would be much appreciated!
In any event, it should be a dream to hold!
Bonne musique,
Benjamin
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