That is a bit of a specialist job and even lute makers tend to hate
doing it (although it can be done). Unless the present holes are
particularly high, you probably wouldn't gain much anyway and you might
encounter the problem afterwards of the strings being too close to the
soundboard for comfort (you are effectively loosing the benefit of
whatever dishing there is).
An over high action (measured from the fingerboard to the underside of
the top string at the 8th fret) can be adjusted either by planing down
the fingerboard if the luthier made it thick enough, (best case
scenario) or by taking the top off and removing wood from the ribs
(expensive business). If the action is really high you might even be
talking about having to reset the neck.
If you only need very minor gains then you could try retying the
strings and use more windings around the bridge, pushing the strings
down gently as you tune them up so that they lie lower.
Best,
Matthew
Has anyone ever tried re-drilling the holes to lower the action? How
might one do that without removing the bridge?
A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E.
On Jun 29, 2018, at 12:37 PM, guy_and_liz Smith
<[1]guy_and_...@msn.com> wrote:
I enlarged a couple of bridge holes on my old Larry Brown, which was
apparently drilled for relatively thin wound basses and couldn't
accommodate larger gut strings. I used what's called a pin vise to
hold the drill (standard item in machine shops), with some tape on
the top to protect it from the vise. Then just gently spin the pin
vise with your fingers to drill out the hole. The main trick is
finding a vice that's skinny enough to handle the spacing between
hole and top.
Here's one example of a pin vise:
[2]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.c
om_Starrett-2D162A-2DVise-2D0-2D0-2D040-2DRange_dp_B06Y5SG9LD_ref-3D
sr-5F1-5F6-3Fs-3Dhi-26ie-3DUTF8-26qid-3D1530300625-26sr-3D1-2D6-26ke
ywords-3Dpin-2Bvise&d=DwIFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuK
y6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=o18tltRbhed6j
CjqKxpJAhCot28OtiG0dJ2bafjczwY&s=VkMbfG1-1rjLpHg35Z1_NPV0P7ozNZteRfj
QLWQdI3Q&e=
Guy
-----Original Message-----
From: [3]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
[[4]mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Matthew Daillie
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 11:50 AM
To: lutelist Net
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lubricating string ends/bridge holes?
Hi Howard,
Even in relatively dry climates gut somehow manages to absorb
humidity
and swell over time.
Personally I would try to avoid lubricating the strings. Have you
tried
cutting the end at an angle to slip it through? You could probably
also
gently sand the last 5 mm or so of the end of the string with some
very
fine emery paper without the risk of fraying or weakening.
Enlarging the bridge holes can be very straight forward with the
appropriate tools (I can send you a photo of the tools I use if
you're
interested).
Best,
Matthew
On 29/06/2018 19:14, howard posner wrote:
I reconfigure the stringing on my archlute from time to time, which
involves moving some extension strings so that, e.g. the 8th course
becomes the 12th for one stringing B, then gets moved back for
stringing A.
I now find that couple of gut extension strings won't fit through
bridge holes that they always fit through before. I tried
blow-drying the string ends, on the assumption that they had swelled
with humidity (not a sound assumption where I live), without
success.
So now, if I don't want to string the whole instrument lighter, it
seems I have two options:
widening the bridge holes or lubricating the string ends. I'd like
to try lubricating first.
Does anyone have experience with string lube jobs? What do you use?
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References
1. mailto:guy_and_...@msn.com
2.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Starrett-2D162A-2DVise-2D0-2D0-2D040-
3. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
4. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
5.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttp-3A-252F-252Fwww.cs.dartmouth.edu-252F-
6.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttp-253A-252F-252Fwww.avg.com-26data-3D02-257C01-257C-257C1c0cd246441345bb1e8408d5ddf13779-257C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa-257C1-257C0-257C636658950444650467-26sdata-3DPGsIilT0PmX6gfDMlgC0gUGdDH9ZVMB4X44c4eNop4g-253D-26reserved-3D0&d=DwIFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=o18tltRbhed6jCjqKxpJAhCot28OtiG0dJ2bafjczwY&s=aPk23Gxhx_SXUE8QFk5CxDaIW_ptRxS1TcThZZUk3Vc&e=
