Luteshop

04/12/2024

A new 6-course lute is available for sale!

6-course lute, November 2024 After Gerle, 59.7cm string length. Stunning back made from figured ash, cherry neck and pegbox, fingerboard, bridge and pegs in plum. Rose after Magno Tieffenbrucker. C…

01/12/2024

Here are some pictures of a recent 6-course. It is has a figured ash back, boxwood fingerboard, cherry neck and pegbox. The rose is after a design by Magno Dieffopruchar.

01/07/2024

A new design, and a new lute for sale! See www.luteshop.co.uk/halflengths and www.luteshop.co.uk/forsale

All enquiries to [email protected]

A new design based on paintings by the “Master of the Half-Lengths” probably from a workshop in Antwerp c.1530. For more detail on the design see here. Nine-rib back of cypress, cherry …

16/12/2023

The latest work off the bench: a 13c lute, body after Frei, pegbox after Schelle, string lengths 72 and 99cm. Strung all in gut apart from KF basses.

15/08/2022

Finishing off this round-up of recent instrument, this is a 7-course lute based on the 6-course lute by Georg Gerle, string length 59.7cm. The body is in plum with ebony fillets and the neck is decorated in the same style as the Gerle, using quilted maple for the light coloured wood on the neck and pegbox, also for the fingerboard. The rose is one of the Sellas roses.

13/08/2022

This is a 7-course lute after Venere with a 60cm string length, following the design I created in 1991, the genesis of which is discussed at https://luteshop.co.uk/2020/01/31/venere/.

It was made for a young professional player who is a postgraduate student at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The rose is from another instrument by Sellas.

11/08/2022

This is a 10-course lute I made earlier this year for a customer whose main interest was to use it for 17th century French airs de cour. Since he didn't need to finger the 9th or 10th courses we decided to run them off the fingerboard to an overhanging nut, an arrangement often seen on French 11-course lutes.

This allows the neck and pegbox to be narrower and therefore lighter in weight. The body is a slightly scaled-down version of the 1582 Venere lute, giving nine frets on the neck with a string length of 68cm. The rose is from an instrument by Matteo Sellas.

It is strung all in gut except for the basses which are the red CD strings from Aquila, and is already sounding like a mature instrument.

09/08/2022

This is a viola da mano in rippled pear and cypress I made back in January. It's pretty much of a repeat of the instrument I made in 2014. You can find out more about the construction process here: https://luteshop.co.uk/projects/violadamano/

07/12/2021

Lutenist and guitarist Israel Golani has made a lovely new recording on the Solaire label which features a 6-course instrument I made for him in 2018. Find out more (and hear samples) at the link below.

Planet Hugill | Robert Hugill – November 2021 “A lovely exploration of the 16th-century French penchant for lute music, notably transcriptions of polyphonic vocal music, by turns dazzling and engaging”

23/07/2021

Here are some more photos, this time of of a lute I made last year for an old friend in Munich who wanted a 7-course lute to be tuned in a'=415. I made the 64cm version of my "Venere" model as described in the blog post here:

One problem lutemakers have is that although there is an expectation that they will make “copies” of original instruments, those original instruments have survived in a state which is very far from…

21/07/2021

This lute, finished earlier this month, was made for a guitarist who got interested in the lute and was unsure what kind of lute they wanted. After some discussion we went for the "early 7-course" lute, which is not the mythical "all-purpose" lute but certainly covers a lot of repertoire, being suitable for all the music for 6 courses from the 16th century (7-course lutes were known as early as the late 15th century, and the first published music dates from 1532), but with a 7th course opens up late 16th and even early 17th century music.

03/04/2021

Very happy to share some photos of a recently completed 7 course lute after Venere, maple back, veneers in holly and ebony and pegs in lemonwood. Rose after Sellas, 60cm string length.