Martin; Your remark about vacationing in Corsica with your lute caught my attention. Did you fly? If so, how were you able to travel with your lute without risking its destruction at the hands of baggage handlers?
Thanks. A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E. Retired Principal Materials Nanoanalysis Engineer EMail: [1]john.mardi...@asu.edu Cell: [2]408-921-3253 (does not work in TEM labs) But don't call the lab....I won't be there! On Aug 4, 2016, at 8:46 AM, Martin Shepherd <[3]mar...@luteshop.co.uk> wrote: Dear Martyn (and All), I'm not ruling out the possibility of loaded strings, but I do think the evidence from bridge holes is mixed, in the sense that we would have to be absolutely certain that a bridge with small holes was original. Even with modern gut strings it's possible to string a 6c lute with only plain gut (well, high twist or whatever) in the bass and also a 13c swan neck lute! The difficult cases are the 8 to 10 course lutes, the 13c bass rider type, also the liuto attiorbato, for all of which loaded basses might well be the answer. I can't send attachments to the list but I'm sending you another painting from 1576 which shows strings very clearly and they're remarkably thin. Best wishes, Martin On 04/08/2016 14:55, Martyn Hodgson wrote: Hello Martin, Nice site and blog. I seem to recall that when loaded strings first came out (25 yrs ago?) that some of the evidence for their use was found in the small diameter holes in some lute bridges. To maintain string tensions at around present day levels the hypothesis was therefore that the old bass strings would have been dense than plain gut - hence 'loaded'. I also recall that somebody (might have been Eph Segerman) at the time also pointed out an alternative for such relatively small diameter holes: that the tensions of the bass strings might be much lower than the upper courses. In short just as you're suggesting. My experience of doing this at the time was that one needed to play very close to the bridge to gain any projection and, of course, this is precisely what most old sources (from c.1600 onwards) tell us. So you may be right - that basses were often(always?) at a significantly lower tension than the upper courses. Having said this, I did like Mimmo's loaded strings very much and, of course, they also possibly indicate loading because of their distinctive colour. All food for thought...... regards, Martyn _______________________________________________________________ ___ From: Martin Shepherd <[4]mar...@luteshop.co.uk> To: Lute List <[5]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Thursday, 4 August 2016, 12:51 Subject: [LUTE] blog post Hi All, Just to let you know that I have put up a new blog post - let me know your thoughts. [1][6]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lutesho p.co.uk_some-2Dthoughts-2Don-2Dstring-2Dtension_&d=CwIC-g&c=AGbYxfJb XK67KfXyGqyv2Ejiz41FqQuZFk4A-1IxfAU&r=MAuGvnWTcVQkxORgQD0QS50ZicPM3N w-61ygSK-LNEQ&m=dIKEOGooyYMh7O0EJ1DY_qoF136V1VaiSq74nqeCB7w&s=lQ7Waz UrnMNYc6AP5APBqzTuRSOPuE_hhVHw8srEIbI&e= Best wishes, Martin --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 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