Eight-Course Renaissance Lute Project
This is an Eight-Course Renaissance Lute completed in December,
2015. The lute was built from an EMS kit (http://www.earlymusicshop.com)
. The kit parts can be seen laid out in the first
picture. As can be seen the shell (back) of the instrument came
preassembled, top (soundboard) prejoined with laser-cut rose (sound
hole), and the pegbox and pegs assembled and fitted. I was
impressed by the quality of woods (rosewood, spruce, lacewood) and
workmanship which I found in the shell and top, but both presented some
problems before they could be fitted together. The shell, not
surprisingly, was cupped end to end, but preparing it to receive the
top proved to be trickier than expected. Only so much material
from the top block could be removed without drastically effecting the
neck thickness at the neck joint. Also, while the laser-cut
rose initially appeared to be a huge time saver I would have prefered a
kit with an uncut top. The rose pattern was a good one, but it
took a week of tedious file and knife work to reduce the burn marks and
make it appear completely hand-cut as possible. The top was well
joined and required very little thickness thinning. The peg box
construction was ok, but had a twist from tip to base. Once
again, it could only be planed so much without making the peg sides
too thin and thereby weakening it. The pegs came prefit to
the pegbox, adequate peg-head detail, predrilled for the string,
and cut to length. The bridge was the biggest
disappointment. It was poorly cut, had a bad mineral stain which
wouldn't "disappear" after finishing, and worst of all had poorly
located string holes. I fashioned my own from ebony. The
nut material was rosewood which I didn't think would prove to be hard
enough for the tricky outer string grooves so I cut one from ebony to
match the bridge. The finish is blond shellac using the
french-polish method. To inquire about your own lute built from EMS kit, or a custom lute, write or give me a call (Contact) .
Click on a picture for a larger image.
EMS kit contents
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Close up of laser-cut rose in top
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Interior of shell
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Fitting braces to top
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Top glue up
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Leveling fingerboard
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Neck fit to body
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Label detail
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between french polishing coats
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Completed
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Email:
lawrenceviolins@gmail.com
Telephone:
760 593-7248