Late medieval lute just finished :)

Dusepo

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I think this looks great! What wood have you used for the body? I have to admire your pierced soundholes-I'm sure they weren't done in 5 minutes. When you are carving directly into the soundboard rather than inserting a loose carving into a soundhole, it must serve to concentrate the mind.
 
I think this looks great! What wood have you used for the body? I have to admire your pierced soundholes-I'm sure they weren't done in 5 minutes. When you are carving directly into the soundboard rather than inserting a loose carving into a soundhole, it must serve to concentrate the mind.

Ribs, pegbox and fingerboard of European Ash, soundboard of European spruce, neck of Wych Elm and Bridge of (stained) European Cherry.

Ha! Yes it does take some concentration but I get into a rhythm. These ones took me about 2 hours in total (I do it an hour at a time to avoid eye strain).
 
Nice work... do I need, however, to mention the elephant in the room? Fine, interesting and well executed the work seems to be, this is a ukulele forum or am I missing something here? If you are looking for peer assessment, unless anyone here is a lute builder I'd say you are posting in a place where only the weakest of comments (like my anodyne ones) can be made. OK if it's 'show and tell' but there is a separate section for that at the bottom of the forum landing page called Shameless Self Promotion.

You offer no explanation as to how this links to uke building and from what I know of lute making (I met Michael Sprake in 1976. He was at the time the UK's foremost early instrument maker - took him a week to make a lute!) it is poles apart from ukulele building and more like Oud making. Now some dialogue on that and how it relates to your experience of ukulele building would certainly be more appropriate than 6 show and tell snaps that are without meaningful commentary, however beautifully the work has been executed!
 
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Nice work... do I need, however, to m mention the elephant in the room? Fine, interesting and well executed the work seems to be, this is a ukulele forum or am I missing something here? If you are looking for peer assessment, unless anyone here is a lute builder I'd say you are posting in a place where only the weakest of comments (like my anodyne ones) can be made....

Interesting take on things Pete. Obviously it's not a ukulele, but is that really that important?. Great workmanship either way, personally I would rather see quality crafsmanship threads than those on cheap plastic tuners. Perhaps banjo ukes are another 'Elephant' if so I will need a new home.

Might be that cold British winter making you a bit frosty.
28 C here today. :)
 
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See my revision and explanation... I sense a bit of drift going on here and if the maker wants us to admire his craftsmanship he might as well be posting pictures of a chair... at least give us some context. And yes, if it was a chair without commentary, my argument would still apply! And you know, as well as I do there is a forum for everything, even banjo ukes but I fear that because you don't make reproduction Gibsons, Abbotts or Ludwigs, you would be ignored there. Yes show the pictures but let's know what is behind them and how they relate to uke - might be just that the gut strings are made by Mimmo, sometimes at 11.00pm at night (ask him about the process of making gut strings)... or I might posting references to Abom79 on YouTube and see how you like that :)
 
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See my revision and explanation... I sense a bit of drift going on here and if the maker wants us to admire his handicraft he might as well be posting pictures of a chair... at least give us some context. And yes, if it was a chair without commentary, my argument would still apply! And you know, as well as I do there is a forum for everything, even banjo ukes but I fear that because you don't make reproduction Gibsons, Abbotts or Ludwigs, you would be ignored there. Yes show the pictures but let's know what is behind them and how they relate to uke - might be just that the gut strings are made by Mimmo, sometimes at 11.00pm at night (ask him about the process of making gut strings)... or I might posting references to Abom79 on YouTube and see how you like that :)

Handicraft ? You need warming up Pete. :cool:
 
Your right Dennis. That should have said craftsmanship and I have corrected it. Apologies Dusepo...
 
As we say in the UK... 'It takes all sorts'.

It's a ukulele site and this forum is called 'Ukulele Building/Luthiers Lounge'. Jo (Dusepo) is one of the few female ( a 'she' not a 'he') luthiers on the forum. As a hobby maker of stringed instruments, I'm always interested in what others are making and to get the benefit of their knowledge and experience. Seeing others work and knowing what skills other members have lends weight to any opinions they offer on this forum.

Jo sometimes only posts images of instruments but when questions are asked, information is always forthcoming. I don't think it's about self promotion, its about sharing her love for/interest in instruments and thats probably why she has a database for stringed instruments ( an asset to users of this forum).

Lots of us probably have opinions on whats appropriate to post on this forum. I'm all for having more competent makers whether they are making guitars, lutes, dulcimers, mandolins, banjos or ukes: these instruments are all made mostly of wood, they all have strings and they all make music.

Yes, its primarily a site for ukulele making/makers but sometimes, there's cross fertilisation of ideas between different instruments.
 
Apolo posted thogies Jo

I don't often post here any more so I am not up to speed with there gender of this who participate. I too like stuff, any stuff. Abom79 is a machinist who does the most amazing work, relevant in attitude to luthiery and all the stuff we do but I don't reference it here, even though we all could learn much from his approach to problem solving.

Yes it does take all sorts. As usual most criticism of my post focuses on a minor point. So here goes, stripped bare.

This is a public space. We can post what we want. What I'd like to see is some context regarding the posting. This is not the first time these wonderful creations have been documented. If it is just for the purposes of 'show and tel' there is a section for that. If it is connected with the heading of this section 'Ukulele Building/Luthiers' Lounge' then some sort of commentary ie: I am trying an egg wash finish on these and thought I'd let y'all know how it holds up - egg whites were used to seal lute soundboards or I've made a uke with tied frets and.... just some sort of context and reason fro the post particularly as it is an image of a lute and not a ukulele. Think it's pretty obvious when I and others post our uke picks here it is to hi light something or other to do with the technical/acoustic challenges of building.

I'm done for a couple of months. I'll post the empirical results of my V class bracing stolen from Taylor who probably had it from somewhere else (tho I believe they have patented it - I'm only using part of their idea which cannot be patented).
 
It’s a beautiful lute. I checked out your website and saw many other beautiful instruments including ukuleles. I bet many of the techniques used to build and develop a lut would be similar to those used in building an ukulele.

I cannot imagine ever building an instrument myself, and can only admire and thank those of you that can.

Thank you for sharing your work.
 
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