To: Tristan von Neumann <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de> Sent: Friday, 8 December 2017, 15:35 Subject: Re: [LUTE] German Lute history (was: Stringing Question) Look at the pictures I recently posted which shows these lute shaped guitars being taken into 'the wilderness'. There are others..... A440 is perfectly satisfactory for an e tuned (ie guitar tuned) instrument of normal (ie guitar) string length. Gut was, of course, employed on guitars until the advent of nylon. Hauser did make lutes in the early/mid 20thC but whilst being double strung they still exhibit many characteristics of the earlier lute-guitar. See for example [1]http://guitars.com/inventory/ac1809-1913-hermann-hauser-lute Dolmetsch and others were making instruments more closely based on historical models at around this time. MH __________________________________________________________________
From: Tristan von Neumann <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de> To: lutelist Net <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Friday, 8 December 2017, 14:34 Subject: [LUTE] German Lute history (was: Stringing Question) The book "The Lute in Europe 2" states that though the German Lute was indeed played by Early Hippies (aka Wandervogel), it wasn't the instrument taken into the wilderness. For that purpose, there was the Wandervogel-Guitar (I think this is the "Klampfe" that inspired the common word for cheap campfire guitars). Due to the rib joints coming apart, I can say for sure that the ribs are very thin like it would be expected in a real lute. The soundboard is surely somewhat sturdier. The only difference is the pins, the frets, and the peg action. Strung with 0.45 Nylon on first course in G 415hz, it sounds much more like my Ren. Lute, not a guitar. There's still one rib joint to glue though before I dare to install the other strings. I can take pictures if you are interested. I have also a later German Lute, that is in better shape. It has a windowed peg box and no flowerhead, probably a later model. Of this I know that it was played in the 30s by the grandma of the guy from whom I bought it. Personally, I doubt that the Lute shape was intended as an optical thing for nostalgic purposes. The sound is different, and with gut strings maybe even more. I have not heard any gut strung German Lute though. I guess 430Hz would be a realistic setting? According to Schlegel/Lütke, there seem to be even "real lutes" around in the Early 20th century, built with traditional pegboxes and double courses, by Hermann Hauser. To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://guitars.com/inventory/ac1809-1913-hermann-hauser-lute 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
