moment of truth

[billkilpatrick]

over on the lute list there's a very interesting thread with the same title concerning the key your instrument is made in. #here are the initial questions:

- does a lute maker know how a lute is going to sound as he's building it? or, is he unsure until he has put tensioned strings on the finished product?

- i've heard tales of a lutemaker who could tell by knocking on a tree how it will (most likely) sound ...

- i took my lute for repair to a violin maker and she blew in the sound hole to figure out my instrument's tuning: the bowl was in D, she said.

it's this last entry that really started it off.

what sound does your instrument make without strings? (this is not a dharma question...)

- bill

[Jim Garber]

- if a lutemaker falls in the forest and no one hears him.... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Do you actually have to take all the strings off in order to tell what pitch it is? I tapped on my Padini's soundboard and it seems like it is G. Blowing into the soundhole gave me little indication, but it is possible that my ear is not tuned to wind instruments.

On the third hand(!) I put some strings on my saxophone and played a mean mazurka. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Don't we all have much too much time on our hands.

Jim

[billkilpatrick]

time sh-mime!... the grass is as high as an elephant's eye and all i want to do is play!

quite by chance i found a way to gauge the note in which the bowl of your instrument is naturally tuned.

stroll into your bathroom (or adjacent duomo) playing the notes of a chromatic scale and listen carefully to the reverberations. the room itself acts as a sound chamber and any notes played in it resonate sympathetically with "the" note of your instrument's sound chamber. you can get better reading of this by playing well away from the bridge.

hope this is of some interest.

- bill