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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVabz8LneI4

Just discovered this fascinating beast this morning.... The mind boggles with questions. Who builds these? How are they built? How much is a set of strings? Where can one learn to play one?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The real question is not how they are built, but why Such long and thin strings seem like a bad idea in terms of cost and likelihood of breakage, even aside from making the instrument difficult to transport and tune, and uncomfortable to hold. Maybe they sound a little less muddy than the heavy gauge strings used on modern harp guitars, but doesn't seem worth it to me.

As for who builds them, my guess is giraffes.

Did some research.... There are makers producing them NOW, and some of them have folding necks. Some backwards, some forwards. Found a bunch of more high fidelity recordings, too. Apparently, theorbo playing is very much alive in Europe, Asia, and the Americas wherever baroque music is loved.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have built 3 full-sized theorboes as well as smaller lutes with extended bass strings, the so-called liuto attiorboto. The long strings were necessary since overspun strings had not been invented yet. Overspun (wound) strings allow added mass to be added to a string without severely impeding flexibility. More mass=lower pitch for a given length of string. To achieve the low bass notes with single gut strings the only practical solution was added length so a relatively thin diameter string could be used. The video shows close-ups of the woven gut strings, known as "catlines". A catline was a ship's rope and this is the derivation of the term "cat gut" (not the entrails of our feline friends). The woven strands of gut was as close as the early makers got to overspun strings, which came about in the late 17th century. As the player in the video mentioned, during the Renaissance many were looking back to the ancient world. I know, the Renaissance seems ancient to us but there was a lot of human history before the mid-1400s. The lyre, which in legend is the first stringed instrument, held particular fascination since it was used to accompany epic poems in ancient Greece. Monteverdi looked to this tradition and is credited as the father of modern opera. If you can find a video of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo it is worth your time to watch. Personally, modern opera is not my cup of tea. But the early works, that feature great early instruments as well as voices that do not have a hint of "shriek" and little to no vibrato, are quite listenable.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

My sons previous guitar teacher plays one of these. They have a group!

http://www.cincinnatiearlymusic.com

Scroll to the bottom.



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Where do you get a case for that?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Confiscated at the English port of entry because it was thought to be a Popish instrument meant to destroy the king. What would they have thought of Jimi Hendrix?

Great find Chris

Ed

How much did you sell them for, and how much is a set of strings? I'd really like to know!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

These were made 30 years ago and the prices were embarrassingly low, like around $3K. How can you build into the price 2 solid days of labor turning the pegs and fitting them so they don't slip? And, no cases are available so 5mm lauan plywood is your friend. There used to be gut manufacturer in Chicago and I can't remember if they were still in business at that time. I might have had to order strings from Sofracob in France. I had to figure out the tensions and diameters of all the strings and specify the diameter to the manufacturer. Catline strings were just coming into reproduction at that time and were not very reliable. Judging by the strings on the lutenist's instrument Catlines have become more accepted and reliable. By any stretch calling a gut string "reliable" is a big leap, however.
Here's a fun fact: the builder has to allow for the extension to bow forward (deflect) and still keep the strings in the same plane as the shorter strings.
My early instruments turned out to be long on research and workshop time and low in pay. No regrets--all the skills are cumulative. But it helped that I was single with no kids and cheap rent!

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Aquila will likely do theorbo strings. Nylgut is available now. Whilst the initial price may be high they are low tension (often played without nails) and can last a mighty long time. When I was playing baroque guitar the strings had been on for just under 2 years and were still sounding perfectly well. Also helps that the frets are made of gut. A modern guitarist may well have changed string sets 20 times in the same time frame.

And here I was thinking a 12-string guitar is hard to tune.

Pretty popular instrument in the University Classical guitar professor population. I have a friend up at App State who recently bought one. He's been borrowing one for several years. Interesting instrument in a mixed ensemble.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Harp Lute!! That is sweet! Thanks for posting!