I agree that the ordinary 5 course 'baroque' guitar can be loud.
Are there any extant theorboes/archlutes or early records of such with extended basses of string length only 90/100cm? MH --- On Sun, 19/7/09, David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> wrote: From: David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Chitarra atiorbata/Guitarre theorbee To: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Date: Sunday, 19 July, 2009, 8:52 PM On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Martyn Hodgson<[1]hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > Has anyone actually played one of these > instruments in with a basses of length only around 90cm (as seems to be > depicted) and with plain gut (and no octave doubling as on the liuto > attiorbato Not a guitar. I have a smallish 440Hz archlute 61/106cm, going to low G' with single plain gut basses. Good sound, no problem. Yes, my 140-something-cm theorbo is better, and I'm sure a 200cm theorbo is even better - size does matter - but still, 106cm to low G' is good enough for most practical purposes. It depends a little on what I want to play with it: Monteverdi with a full orchestra and choir is possible, but obviously not ideal. The top is more of a problem there, by the way, the basses are strong enough. Delicate solo playing, quite nicely in balance with the top of the instrument. Solo singer in a not too big concert hall or church, no problem. But indeed, not the depth or sustain of the 140cm theorbo. It has a less relaxed feel to it, when I'm aiming at a similar level of volume, is perhaps the best way of describing it. Point is, 106cm is quite ok for low single basses in plain gut. 90cm is a bit shorter, but fiddle with tuning and/or pitch, and it might not be that far removed. David - baroque guitar with just five coures, but boy, can that be loud! -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [2]davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk 2. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=davidvanooi...@gmail.com 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html