7 Course Renaissance Lute

**JCD** · 21st August 2009, 07:07 PM

Hi guy’s

This is my first post. You seem to be doing OK with your lute builds. As I have been at this game for 30 years I thought I might be of some assistance. Firstly; there is more to building a lute than gluing bits of wood together from a plan. Usually the plan is simplified so understanding the design and proportions is essential as very few lutes are built with the cross section as a perfect half circle . A good start is with a book called Geometry, Proportion and the art of Luthiery by Kevin Coats. (out of print)

There seems to be some concern with accuracy. No original lute that I have examined in Europe is perfectly symmetrical. This is because the jigs used, were minimal. In fact I have built lutes with out a jig at all. Some backs are extremely sophisticated in there shape so doing your own drawing’s is important.

I redraw any plans as I usually find mistakes in them or I draw from scratch using photo’s or paintings found in books. If an instrument has only a few ribs I will calculate the shape. If the number of ribs is above 15, I work by eye. Calculating 33 different ribs is no fun and takes along time.

The reason I mention this is because you may think you are doing something wrong when it is the plan that is wrong. I have seen some of the stuff on the market. It is ok but needs refinement. As you begin to refine the info you begin to realise that it is easier to start from scratch. That’s how I got started.

I wish you all a merry build, cheers JCD

**kiwigeo** · 21st August 2009, 07:58 PM

Thanks for the comments JCD and theyre appreciated

I'm well aware that knocking up a lute is more than gluing bits from wood together from a plan...and Im also aware that the cross section of a lute body is not a perfect half circle. The assymetrical nature of many parts of the lute is well covered in the early chapters of Lundgren's book "Historical Lute Construction" and also becomes obvious when you look at the dimensions on the plans included in van Andrews tutorials. During construction of my lute Ive had a fair bit of input from other people such as Colin Symonds and Dave White. Colin is a UK based luthier who spends alot of time on restoration of lutes and other early instruments.

As far as jigs go the only jig Ive used is the mould the body is built over and I wouldn't say that was perfect in anyway...it did however achieve its purpose. Lundgren makes the comment that one should be achieving "good enough" rather than "perfection" and that's pretty much what Ive been doing so far.

Once again thanks for the post and I look forward to some more posts from you with pictures of your work.

Cheers Martin

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