Thanks for your interest. I am always attacked for using single strings at higher tension. Not authentic! I have my reasons for using, not the least of which is, being 79 years old, and suffering from focal dystonia, I find it increasingly difficult to go from the high tension strings romantic guitar, to low tension lute...they feel like rubber bands! But to answer your question...yes, single stringing at higher tension does increase volume, AND resonance! It has the considerable advantage in that you can have a uniform tension across the instrument. Each string on this lute is at 4.6 kg, which only the first would be at normally. Even tension considerably aids playing. Also, despite the much higher tension per string, the overall tension at the bridge is less than a normally strung lute! This considerably aids resonance. I may say that this is an historically built lute, it is NOT a Liuto Forte...but I have nothing against that instrument...it has its place. The increase in volume is noticeable, and the lute can be played strongly without fear of clashing. Historically, the French theorboes were always single strung, and sound wonderful. The mandora was also known to be single strung. Some archlutes are at least partly single strung, so single stringing is not the heresy that some would label it.
@@luteman Well, the lute, especially the renaissance design, is such a wonderfully proportioned and ergonomic instrument, so I myself was wondering what is the purpose of pretending that wound string was never invented only for this instrument, while adopting it for all the other plucked instruments. Surely, the lute sounded quite delicate even to ancient ears, let alone modern. When hard pressed to find one advantage of double courses, some prefer to say that it somehow suits the counterpoint play style, but in which grade of elementary musical school is exactly the technique of effectively muting the basses mastered?
@@draganmarkovic1215 You are living in the past...and as there is no past...? Revise your block universe...theory...! The lute died at the end on the 18th century because it could not cope with the new music....and yet...other instruments...contemporary with the lute...adapted...forming new instruments...yet always...their history was maintained...which is why a Steinway D can exist alongside a Chopin Pleyel...or a Beethoven Stein or Walther. Do not 'pickle the lute in aspic'! There is room for other interpretations...or do you not believe that other...albeit theoretical...or otherwise.....interpretations have a right to exist in a free world?
@@luteman I agree with you completely. Your lutes have a bright and clear sound, they sound louder too, although I cannot estimate by how much virtually.
@@draganmarkovic1215 I thank you for your kind comments. The volume from this particular lute is up, I would guess, without precise measuring, by nearly 50%. Single strings are, as you say, much clearer than double strings.....so why did the lute, and other kindred instruments persist with double courses, either unison, or at the octave, virtually throughout its history? The answers are, and there are a number, far too complex for a you tube dialogue. Maybe I'll write a paper for FoMRHI! Thanks for your interest. There is always space for intelligent discussion, without blinkered pedantry, and I am grateful for that.
This is splendid
Thank you very much for your comment.
wow cool
A question Mr. Blocksidge: Does stringing the lute with singles improve volume, and to what extent?
Greetings!
Thanks for your interest. I am always attacked for using single strings at higher tension. Not authentic! I have my reasons for using, not the least of which is, being 79 years old, and suffering from focal dystonia, I find it increasingly difficult to go from the high tension strings romantic guitar, to low tension lute...they feel like rubber bands! But to answer your question...yes, single stringing at higher tension does increase volume, AND resonance! It has the considerable advantage in that you can have a uniform tension across the instrument. Each string on this lute is at 4.6 kg, which only the first would be at normally. Even tension considerably aids playing. Also, despite the much higher tension per string, the overall tension at the bridge is less than a normally strung lute! This considerably aids resonance. I may say that this is an historically built lute, it is NOT a Liuto Forte...but I have nothing against that instrument...it has its place. The increase in volume is noticeable, and the lute can be played strongly without fear of clashing. Historically, the French theorboes were always single strung, and sound wonderful. The mandora was also known to be single strung. Some archlutes are at least partly single strung, so single stringing is not the heresy that some would label it.
@@luteman Well, the lute, especially the renaissance design, is such a wonderfully proportioned and ergonomic instrument, so I myself was wondering what is the purpose of pretending that wound string was never invented only for this instrument, while adopting it for all the other plucked instruments. Surely, the lute sounded quite delicate even to ancient ears, let alone modern. When hard pressed to find one advantage of double courses, some prefer to say that it somehow suits the counterpoint play style, but in which grade of elementary musical school is exactly the technique of effectively muting the basses mastered?
@@draganmarkovic1215 You are living in the past...and as there is no past...? Revise your block universe...theory...! The lute died at the end on the 18th century because it could not cope with the new music....and yet...other instruments...contemporary with the lute...adapted...forming new instruments...yet always...their history was maintained...which is why a Steinway D can exist alongside a Chopin Pleyel...or a Beethoven Stein or Walther. Do not 'pickle the lute in aspic'! There is room for other interpretations...or do you not believe that other...albeit theoretical...or otherwise.....interpretations have a right to exist in a free world?
@@luteman I agree with you completely. Your lutes have a bright and clear sound, they sound louder too, although I cannot estimate by how much virtually.
@@draganmarkovic1215 I thank you for your kind comments. The volume from this particular lute is up, I would guess, without precise measuring, by nearly 50%. Single strings are, as you say, much clearer than double strings.....so why did the lute, and other kindred instruments persist with double courses, either unison, or at the octave, virtually throughout its history? The answers are, and there are a number, far too complex for a you tube dialogue. Maybe I'll write a paper for FoMRHI! Thanks for your interest. There is always space for intelligent discussion, without blinkered pedantry, and I am grateful for that.