Hi, Daniel, Geoff, and all. I believe current thinking is that this is a version of a "chitarrone francese". Stephen Barber and Sandi Harris offer their version in their catalog (No. 21): [1]http://www.lutesandguitars.co.uk/htm/cat10.htm with the famous painting and a concise statement of historical evidence. I haven't seen any of the Taylor/Mideast instruments, but I know my friend had worked with them in the past to try to bring their construction practices more in line with historical approaches, apparently with some success. I have to admit being tempted myself. Best to all, Chris.
On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 8:21 AM, Geoff Gaherty <[2][email protected]> wrote: On 12/01/14 12:42 AM, [3][email protected] wrote: Instrument(s) for sale:[4]http://bit.ly/1ddztq7 If I count correctly, this instrument has1 single chanterelle + 4 double courses on the fingerboard9 single courses on the extension. Is there any historical, modern or practical justification for this configuration?In other words, does there exist any music that would be playable on it? Those are instruments designed by Zachariah Taylor in the UK, built in Pakistan, and imported into the UK by the Early Music Shop and the USA by Mid-East. They tend to be quite heavily built and rather odd designs, but have the advantage of selling for a fraction of the cost of custom-made instruments. I own one of their treble lutes (in a', mistakenly called a "descant lute") which is quite nice, much nicer than their standard g' lutes, and their Sellas baroque guitar, which needs some work to make it playable. They also make a "baroque lute" in 6 + 8 configuration with a shorter scale: [5]http://www.mid-east.com/Strings/Lute/Roosebeck-Baroque-Lute-6-8-R osewood Geoff -- Geoff Gaherty Foxmead Observatory Coldwater, Ontario, Canada [6]http://www.gaherty.ca [7]http://starrynightskyevents.blogspot.com/ To get on or off this list see list information at [8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.lutesandguitars.co.uk/htm/cat10.htm 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. http://bit.ly/1ddztq7 5. http://www.mid-east.com/Strings/Lute/Roosebeck-Baroque-Lute-6-8-Rosewood 6. http://www.gaherty.ca/ 7. http://starrynightskyevents.blogspot.com/ 8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
