Lute, 7-Course Lute, Varigated, Taylor, FREE Case

The Taylor lute has a body of alternating rosewood and lacewood staves, with a rosewood neck and rosewood finger board. The peg box is solid lacewood with rosewood veneer and the tuners are ebony. The soundboard is made out of European spruce with a rosewood bridge and rosewood end pin. There are six nylon frets and six rosewood frets. The nut width is 67 mm.

This 7 course Renaissance lute designed by Zachary Taylor is based on an instrument made by Hans Frei, the original of which may be seen in the Warwick Museum in England. That lute was made in Bologna about 1540 and since then may have been the subject of conversions to the stringing and the soundboard. Apart from shortening the string length from 670mm to 600, for ease of left-hand fingering, the instruments follow Hans Frei's principles of construction. The lute has a long history dating back to pre-biblical times and although it has existed in many forms it may be classified as either short- or long-necked. The European lute and its ancestor, the oud, (or, 'al'ud' meaning 'the wood') are examples of the short-necked variety and were later developments.

The instrument being considered here is called a Renaissance lute, the term being a convenient way of placing it in the musical timeline. While the dating of the Renaissance period is not necessarily aligned with related subjects such as art or architecture, it is generally taken to refer to the period from 1400 to 1600. There can be little doubt that the instrument came into the European musical history books when the Crusaders returned from conflict with the Arabs whose favourite instrument was the oud. While the lute may be referred to as a type of oud, it differs in a fundamental way in having frets attached to the neck. Gut or similar material is used to tie around the neck to serve as frets. Another difference is that in the playing technique the strings of the oud are plucked with a plectrum whilst lute strings are plucked with the fingers.

Characteristically the bowl-shaped body of the lute is achieved by gluing together slats of thin wood bent to a specific shape with no internal structure to retain its form. In common with its earlier relatives lute strings are arranged in 'courses', a term meaning either single or double, occasionally even three, strings. With double strings for each course the lute is similar to the oud except that the first course, the highest in pitch, is normally a single string. Double-string courses may be tuned in unison or in octaves, depending on the needs of the player. Usually the higher courses are in unison, whilst the lower ones are in octaves providing a brighter sound. Primarily used for the accompaniment of song, little music that can be attributed to the lute exists from earlier than the 15th century when the player probably improvised it.

Gradually, with the refinement of technique, particularly with the use of fingers, rather than a plectrum, to pluck the strings, polyphonic music began to be played on one instrument. To enable this to be achieved and to widen the compass the number of courses increased from 4 and 5 to 6 and more. During the Renaissance when the lute became the favourite instrument for solo performance it was also used for accompanying the voice.

Throughout the Renaissance and the Baroque eras the lute continued to be developed by the addition of more strings and the attachment of longer necks to increase the bass range. This led to the family of instruments called variously, theorbo, archlute, chittarone and number of strings increasing to as many as 35. Gradually the lute found its way into the accompaniment section of ensembles, losing its place eventually to the harpsichord, which had a stronger sound.

Since the 19th century, as a solo instrument, as well as for song accompaniment, the lute has given way to the guitar. Due to recent interest in the return to a preference for using instruments for which the music was written, there has been a revival in playing the lute and other early instruments.

Guitarists may readily adopt the lute when they realize that few technical adjustments are necessary to achieve competence as a lutenist.

Zachary Taylor is a designer and maker of early stringed instruments. Early in his career as a performer on classical guitar and lute he began to study the creation of representations of early instruments. In his relentless research he endeavours to acquire sufficient information for the construction of examples in the likeness of original instruments. For more than a quarter of a century he has taught the subject of lutherie in the Universities of Suffolk, England and Vigo, Spain and in Colleges including West Dean and Missenden Abbey in England. Major projects include the re-construction of instruments that form the entrance arch to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. His authorship includes many books, including 'Make and Play a Lute' and 'Making early stringed instruments'. It is Zachary Taylor's mission to design authentic examples of ancient instruments, accessible to enthusiasts who demand high quality without a high-price tag.

Chinar, or lacewood, is especially an exotic timber due to its highly variant grains and its golden creamy color,. Includes hard case.

We have sold lutes to lute instructors and students who have been quite pleased with them.