Martin- that is one sweet looking masterpiece; I would have killed for
one (or paid you to build one!) back in 1999 when I was working on
Piccinini a whole lot. Perfect symmetry! The historic survivors vary a
bit in this regard, yours looks just like one of the better ones that I
have seen. Not being able to get one was part of what prompted me to go
for a "Chambure" vihuela copy when I became aware of that new find.
I like how your playing smooths out on the Piccinini as you get further
into the piece- I hope you can build one for yourself, so that your own
playing comes up to your 6-course fluency.
The double chanterelle is a feature that I have been struggling with (on
the Vihuela) for years; first it took a long time to get the stringing
to work- string material/diameter/tension/pitch level combo right, and
then more time getting the touch right. But so worth it! At it's best,
there is a wonderful concord & unity with all the other double courses,
but when out of sorts or practice it can really suck. I can see why
there was such controversy about double vs. single for quite a while
back in the day.
I would conjecture that some modern approaches to the liuto attorbiato
design with short but single diapasons are indeed taking advantage of
wire overspun basses that have enough harmonic overtones to get away
with no 8ve strings, but can still give a bit of the feel of that long,
extended neck growl and twang so typical of archlutes & theorbi. For
the liuto attorbiato, I much prefer your solution- because it is not,
after all, an archlute (much less a theorbo).
Congrats, and I hope you build more!
Dan
On 10/18/2014 8:06 AM, Martin Shepherd wrote:
Hi All,
You can now see and hear more detail on this project, including some
of the considerations which went into it, at:
http://www.luteshop.co.uk/Liuto_Attiorbato.html
Martin
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