23 String Harp-Lute That I Have Made

koneguitarist

That's a first time for any guitar forum I should imagine. Excellent work.

Antique_Guitars

Phil_aka_Pip said:

wowsers!

would you use baroque tuning ie A=415 Hz to save stress on the neck?

Thats actually a very good idea, I could start at that pitch then gradually increase it if I tihnk that the instrument is up to the strain.

Rocker

Wow!  Brilliant work my friend.

Phil_aka_Pip

@Antique_Guitars fanx 4 wisdom! you may not need to raise the pitch if you can arrange to have the instrument playing with other period or replica instruments that also use baroque tuning. I'd love to hear it !

ROOG

Beauty to behold.

TTony

Just going through some old posts (for the index pages!), saw this, remembered it, and wondered how it's doing now?

@Antique_Guitars

LastMantra

By the rivers of Babylon!! Nice work!

Deijavoo

Wow!

Antique_Guitars

TTony said:

Just going through some old posts (for the index pages!), saw this, remembered it, and wondered how it's doing now?

@Antique_Guitars

It is still in one piece ha ha but I haven't done a great deal with it recently, really it needs some modifications and repair based on extra information that has come to light since I made it.

I have however completed a 12,000 word journal article on how I made it for the Lute Society website, so it should be online in a month or so. It wil also be printed in hardcopy for the FOMRHI journal at some stage (http://www.fomrhi.org/)

There will also be a full length journal article at some stage detailing the research as well as the construction, this will probably be put on the FOMRHI website. It will be around 30,000 words.

When I get a workshop I will hopefully try and build another based on what I have learnt building the first one.

TTony

A stunning piece of work.  And something to be proud of for the rest of your life.

Good to have it committed to words & paper too,

JookyChap

I wonder if people took every other string off to help out the sausage fingered minstrel about town..









(I have no grasp of history)

johnnyurq

Amazing looking instrument and looks very complex to make and play.

I am guessing it would be a load of loot for a Lute/Harp hybrid. 

See if you can punt it to Richie Blackmore.

Have you composed any period and instrument correct with it get.

Bloody good skills dude, very impressive. 

Antique_Guitars

TTony said:

A stunning piece of work.  And something to be proud of for the rest of your life.

Good to have it committed to words & paper too,

Yeah it was one of the main reasons of researching it as the instruments has been pretty much ignored for nearly 400 years

Antique_Guitars

johnnyurq said:

Amazing looking instrument and looks very complex to make and play.

I am guessing it would be a load of loot for a Lute/Harp hybrid. 

See if you can punt it to Richie Blackmore.

Have you composed any period and instrument correct with it get.

Bloody good skills dude, very impressive. 

I think if I was to make one properly and to a good standard it would have to cost £2.5k the thing just takes so long to make. I have not attempted to really write anything for it as it really needs to be modded and adjusted.

imalone

Any idea why it wasn't built more as a harp with a lute sound box than a lute with a harp tagged on? Obviously your aim is to reproduce the original design and the problem is unavoidable, but the first builder must have realised this wasn't going to be fantastically stable. "It may actually destroy itself at full pitch." is not something you see often.

Antique_Guitars said:
I think if I was to make one properly and to a good standard it would have to cost £2.5k the thing just takes so long to make. I have not attempted to really write anything for it as it really needs to be modded and adjusted.

But does it djent?
(Oops, wrong forum)

Antique_Guitars

imalone said:

Any idea why it wasn't built more as a harp with a lute sound box than a lute with a harp tagged on? Obviously your aim is to reproduce the original design and the problem is unavoidable, but the first builder must have realised this wasn't going to be fantastically stable. "It may actually destroy itself at full pitch." is not something you see often.

Antique_Guitars said:
I think if I was to make one properly and to a good standard it would have to cost £2.5k the thing just takes so long to make. I have not attempted to really write anything for it as it really needs to be modded and adjusted.

But does it djent?
(Oops, wrong forum)

Well we have no information on the builder or owner/player so any theories I have are completely speculative.

It was possibly a custom instrument comissioned by a lutenist who enjoyed the range of notes provided by a harp or perhaps a harpist who wanted a more compact/portable instrument to play. It really could be any number of reasons.

Italian music was starting to be very popular in Germany at the time (17th Century) and the use of accompaniment such as Basso Continuo was becoming more common. Potentially it is a lute type instrument that could be used for such a technique without being overly cumbersome like its Theorbo and Chitarrone counterparts.

Either way it needs a fair bit more investigation, I wouldn't claim to have the expert level of knowledge regarding musical instruments or music performance paractice in 17th Century Germany to be able to give you the best answer.

Thats why hopefuly when the work is published people with far more knowledge than me will come forward and correct me or offer additional sources of information regarding the instrument.

DrJazzTap

That is lovely, incredible work....... Needs a diagonal telecaster neck pickup.

Joking aside hats off to you.

vasselmeyer

@Antique_Guitars Any chance of a video of it being played? I'd love to hear what it sounds like.