bout the Lute-Guitar

As its name implies, the lute-guitar is a cross between a lute and a guitar. The body of the instrument is very similar to that of a lute or theorbo, with its egg shaped back made from staves of wood. Like lutes, they typically have rosettes rather than sound holes. The elements that were borrowed from guitars were the strings, machine heads, and consequently the width of the neck. They were single strung, like most guitars, and used metal strings rather than ones made of gut. The frets are simply bars of metal, as opposed to modern frets that have a rounded shape, or gut frets that are tied on. On the instrument that is pictured I believe that they are brass. Such frets are used on older instruments that were strung with wire such as the opharion. The fretboards of these instruments may be scalloped (the wood inbetween the frets is carved in a concave shape), as the one pictured here is.

The lute-guitar was invented in Germany in the 19th century. The early music revival in that century took many forms, and the lute-guitar was one of them. Its presence shows that early music was more than a museum piece at that time. Rather than approach the subject from the perspective of historical accuracy, they chose to combine earlier features with modern elements. The result is an instrument with some of the tonal qualities of the lute, with the louder modern strings. In their eyes this eliminated the need for double courses. This resulted in a more stable instrument.

The late husband of one of our members was a guitarrist. The lute-guitar pictured on this page was part of his collection. He acquired it in Europe as a young man, prior to world war two. It was made by Josef Leopold Pick of Vienna Austria. It has six courses on the main part of the neck, and then an additional four courses on a swan neck extension. In this way it is something like a theorbo.