To answer your actual questions, I don’t think there are enough people who have played the Luth Dore baroque lutes to really get a balanced opinion. You might want to ask Rob MacKillop off line because he received an early model. Of course once they start to be mass produced one hopes there will be consistency between instruments. I don’t think you can make a blanket statement about bridge length. It really depends on your personal anatomy and how well the strings vibrate on the instrument. At that price point however there is little competition.
There are people who have filed their nails on an angle, allowing flesh only for lute playing and a flesh/nail interface for classical guitar and/or theorbo. Pat O’Brien was a prime example of someone who easily switched between all instruments in that way. It’s actually the theorbo that has the hand position most similar to classical guitar, although there are differences for all the plucked lute family instruments. The primary difficulty with nails is cleanly striking both strings of a course together in unison. Especially that striking involves equal depression of both strings towards the soundboard and then follow through. A single strung theorbo avoids that problem, but you did say you wanted a baroque lute. Congratulations on that choice BTW, there is a surprising depth and breadth of music written in that tuning that traverses countries and styles. It’s truly a wonderful instrument and it has given me years of joy. You didn’t say where you live. If in the USA or UK, the local lute societies have lute lending programs that would allow you to try out a lute first. If you could attend one of the many playing days in the UK or lute seminar in the USA you would have the chance to try multiple lutes with different sizes and configurations. More ideal than buying sight unseen, which sadly most of us end up doing in the end. Danny > On Oct 18, 2017, at 2:58 AM, Ido Shdaimah <ishdai...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello fellow lute players and enthusiasts, I have a fair amount of > money saved and I would like to buy a lute. Currently I am eyeing Le > Luth Doré lutes, what is your take on these? > I would like a baroque lute, but Roman Turovsky advises against them > because of the 140cm bridge length, but I would like to hear other > people on the issue too. > More on these lutes: What is the difference between the cheaper and the > more expensive versions? > And finally, I currently play the classical guitar, and I'm not > planning to give up on it. So what should I do concerning the > nail/nail-less dispute? Should I find a middle ground, play nail-less > on both or maybe play with nails? > Thanks in advance. > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html