Hello Richard, One advantage of velvet is that it provides sufficient friction to encourage a secure hold on the bag. Many people use the Northumbrian black & white plaid, sometimes called 'shepherds' plaid' for the same reason as well as a notion of 'cultural appropriateness'. However if excessive dressing has been used in the bag, such a cover will quickly stain whereas dark velvet is more forgiving.
No need to use anything at all of course if you have a good leather bag and don't mind the look of it. You'll find an example on the front of Rob Say's excellent new CD. The risk of excommunication and burning at the stake for deviant bag-cover use is not currently substantial. Francis On 11 Aug 2010, at 21:37, Richard York wrote: > Greetings. > I'm replacing the cover for my bag, due to replacing the leather bag with a > longer necked one, which would otherwise poke out in an undignified way. > > I've only ever seen velvet used on bag covers so far. Is it just a fine > tradition, or is there some reason why other cloths may be inappropriate? Has > anyone out there any experience of other cloths and their potential drawbacks? > > If I do end up with a different cloth, do I get excommunicated, or burnt, or > anything like that? > > Best wishes, > Richard. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
