I find that sustain is a major factor in the choice of a lute. Obviously we are not talking grand piano sustain, but an instrument with good sustain makes all the difference, especially for playing polyphonic music. Clearly appropriate acoustics can make or break a lute, (however good the instrument and the player) but in the right environment the sound can also carry astonishingly well.
There might actually be a correlation between sustain and the amount of dishing. A well respected lutenist, with vast experience of teaching internationally, observed that lutes with inordinate dishing (a practice which is apparently common in some parts), and so with the strings at a significant height above the soundboard, frequently lacked sustain. Best, Matthew > On Jun 30, 2019, at 19:51, Ron Andrico <praelu...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Sustain does not and probably never did factor into the plucked string sound > of the lute. The sound is immediate and rich in overtones, but ephemeral and > does not travel well. > RA > ______________________________________________________________ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
