Hello Leonard, I meticulously play every day as a warm up simple notes on all courses with the goal to create the "perfect" attack which is the fingers and thumb engage both strings at the same time. There is a video on YT that shows it quite well by David van Ooiyen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh0X4U6h7DM Of course doing so repeatedly with the hope that in time it becomes automatic. For the rest I have no complaints at all about an octave string on the 5th course, but it also depends on the music played. Good luck Jurgen ---------------------------------- “Close your eyes. Fall in love. Stay there.” Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Thursday, November 28, 2019 2:33 AM, Leonard Williams <[email protected]> wrote: > I, too have had issues with octaves on the 5th course of my 8 > course lute. I tried it several years ago, using an octave half the > diameter of the bass (all in gut). But, whereas the octave g on 6th > blended well with its bass, the octave c stood out, sounding jangly, > almost as though I had a metal string on there. Perhaps it was poor > (thumb-in in this case) technique? At any rate, I switched back to > unison. > I'm trying octaves again as a result of this discussion, same > stringing. One thing I paid careful attention to was the height of the > octave: it stood a mere half millimeter above the bass at the bridge, > but enough that I was striking the pair of strings unevenly, with the > octave ringing out quite plainly. I adjusted the bridge knot, what > little I could, and the sound improved somewhat. Perhaps further work > with RH technique will further improve the sound. Or--any other > suggestions?? > Regards to all, and Happy (US) Thanksgiving! > Leonard Williams > On 23 nov. 2019, at 13:17, Jurgen Frenz > <[1][email protected]> wrote: > > > Hello there, > > > > > > I have an 8c lute now since 10 months and from the beginning I'm > > > "unhappy" with the sound of the unison C strings on it. I changed > > the > > > plain Aquila strings to round-wound Aquilas but to me it sounds > > quite > > > the same. What I'm missing is the high frequencies that we have on > > 6c > > > instruments with the octave string. In my mind I call the current > > sound > > > "plastic-y". The maker of the instrument suggested to try out the > > > Savarez early music strings but I do not think I would recover high > > > frequencies with them. > > > > > > Any remedies that you have tried out with success other than "just > > get > > > used to it"? An octave string shouldn't be a good idea because it > > would > > > confuse voices. > > > > > > Hoping for some suggestions, > > > Jurgen > > > > > > > > > "Close your eyes. Fall in love. Stay there." > > > > > > JalÃl ad-DÃ «n Muhammad Rumi > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > > [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:[email protected] > 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
