If I were to string-up Magnus’ double-strung diapasons, I wouldn’t bother with octaves on the 7th (and probably 8th) course. At that length (130cm) and pitch they will sound bright enough. - just string them in unisons.
Miles > On Dec 12, 2017, at 8:21 AM, Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk> wrote: > > Sorry I didn't make myself clear. > > When thinking about English theorbo, I was thinking about the viability of > the lowest basses (at say 130cm). On a typical swan-neck lute, the lowest > course would be tuned to AA at a likely pitch of around a'=392 and be perhaps > 99cm long, so this might be a better comparison. This comparison suggests > that the 130cm bass on the theorbo would be fine. > > The other issue is whether the 7th course octave is too thin to be viable (I > can imagine a diameter of about .70mm for the low octave, but that implies > .35mm for the high octave). I've temporarily lost my string calculator, but > Martyn Hodgson's estimate of .34mm seems reasonable. But .34mm is at least > 20% thinner than the smallest diameter that we think the Old Ones could have > made (we could be wrong about this, but even if such a string could be made > it is hard to imagine it being any use for anything, as Matthew says). > > So it seems to me that Magnus' potential problem is how to string the upper > octaves of the 7th (and also probably 8th) course. > > Martin > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
