[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

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

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

There are two issues: the length and the diameter. It is not easy to find thin gauge gut strings long enough for a 130 cm diapason. A string of 0.34 is incredibly thin. I don't even know if they are available and if they are, they certainly wouldn't last long. I very much doubt that historical

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

I disagree Matthew, Bear in mind that thin gut strings stretch and thus thin significantly when up to tension. So your 0.40 would be closer to 0.37 when up to pitch. I was basing tension calculations (as they ought to be for accuracy) on stretched/thinned strings: thus the 0.34mm

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

The Working Index, that is the product between the frequency of the strings and the vibrating string lenght in mt, can predict when a string start to be 'not good enought'. I am considering here the case of a plain gut string, not a denser versions (wound, loaded, gimped etc

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

Here's a few scenarios: - The musician had to sell his luxury car for a small one, but the lute did not fit into the baggage compartment. - The musician had to downsize his apartment, now living in a small room under the roof the lute was too long for the low ceiling. - the musician had a very

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

Dear Howard, Matthew, Martin and Mimmo, thanks very much for your insightful comments. As we all know, lutes and theorboes were rebuilt- I ´d not use the word mangle here- throughout the history. Samuel Pepys gives us an example on the 25th of October 1661: [1]"Home on foot very

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

Am Dienstag, 12. Dezember 2017 10:17 CET, Martin Shepherd schrieb: > It just occurred to me that the "English" theorbo as described by Mace > had double basses.  I have no experience of trying to reconstruct this > instrument, but some people do - David Van Edwards

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

I fully agree, Howard, that it is always interesting to explore how lutemaking developed and why certain instruments were modified to cater for changes in taste. There were clearly some very convincing conversions made of renaissance lutes for baroque lutenists, but wouldn't we have preferred

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

It just occurred to me that the "English" theorbo as described by Mace had double basses.  I have no experience of trying to reconstruct this instrument, but some people do - David Van Edwards made one for Lynda Sayce, there must be others -  I wonder if they have any insights? Martin ---

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

Dear Magnus, I really don't see what the problem is: for a theorbo with doubled octave strung basses, if your highest pitched open 7th course bass octave is g (assuming a theorbo in nominal A), then for, say, a tension around 3.2KG (obviously less than if single strung) the diameter

[LUTE] Re: A stringing question for Sellas E. 545

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