Lutes by Arthur Robb

Lute Catalogue and Price List to January 2009 Prices are in UK pounds and include an excellent quality Kingham mTm case. Click on any picture to see a larger version.		A new owner took this photo of myself and the ten course lute I made for him. 2003
Twenty-first century lutes are for musicians who wish to play lute music composed from c. 1300 to 1680. Experienced lute players are very particular about using instruments appropriate for a period of music. Since lutes and lute music were around for such a long time, there is a long and changing history of lute making resulting in a wide variety of types of lutes. I have come to specialise in the lutes of the late Renaissance, but I make many other instruments as well. My lutes are based upon existing old instruments, paintings and contemporary evidence. All my lutes have Swiss pine soundboards and English fruitwood pegs.

Renaissance Lutes - Elegant and Simple - no Decoration - 13 Ribs
6 courses	£2640
7 courses	£2670
8 courses	£2710
10 courses	£2815
To keep cost to a minimum, these lutes have a slightly simplified rose, an oiled finish, no points where the soundboard meets the figerboard, which is English walnut. I chose the materials, using what is available in the workshop, usually English sycamore or cherry. None of these choices will effect the quality of the sound and the lute is very environmentally friendly. For a varnished finish add £200.

Renaissance Lutes - With Decoration - 13 Ribs
7 courses	£3020
8 courses	£3060
10 courses	£3165
Body of cherry, ash, sycamore - or as shown here, contrasting sycamore and cherry with a small amount of decoration, lines between ribs, points where the soundboard meets the fingerboard, which is rosewood, and a choice of more ornate roses. This design and level of decoration is typical of many old Renaissance lutes.

Renaissance Lutes - 25 Ribs - With Decoration
7 courses	£3370
8 courses	£3410
10 courses	£3515
Two lute bodies made from 25 contrasting pieces of English cherry - light and dark lines between ribs. The neck, made of pine, is veneered with cherry that was used in the body. Again some decoration.

Renaissance Lutes - 35 Ribs - With More Decoration
7 courses	£3870
8 courses	£3910
10 courses	£4015
This lute has 35 yew ribs, Indian rosewood for veneers and fingerboard with darkened plum pegs. The soundboard has a veneered edge and there is an inlaid heart. The back of the neck and pegbox are inlaid with boxwood lines and the pegbox is veneered with indian rosewood and edged with boxwood. The pear bridge is ebonized.

Ten Course Lutes

Ten course lutes are probably more popular today than they were in the 17th century. Two compromises are often made. The first is to increase the string length to about 630mm allowing longer bass strings which have a better tone. This also lowers the pitch of the top string to f'. The second is to make the neck a bit narrower so that some of the bass strings do not have the fingerboard beneath them. This does not matter as these bass strings are never fretted. The picture on the right illustrates this.

Baroque Lutes - Simple
11 courses	£3195
13 courses	£3460

Baroque Lutes - Decorated
11 courses	£3495
13 courses	£3755
Indian rosewood body and veneers

Viheula - Simple
6 courses	£2500

Lutes Sounds
To hear two of my lutes being tried out in the workshop, click on the buttons to the right.

General Information
I have been making lutes since 1974 and I like to make them as if I were in the lute making environment of the 16th to 18th centuries. I use good quality materials, hide glue and have studied the old instruments. I do not copy exisiting old lutes but attempt to build instruments which might well have existed and are useful to modern players.		Planing lute ribs Photo by Tim Motion for an article in Country Living - 1990
Lutes from my workshop can be made entirely to customers specification. One of the pleasures of having a musical instrument made this way is that many choices are left to the player - tone, woods used, string length, string tension, use of gut or nylon strings, width of the nut, rose design, decoration. The most useful instruments originate from a working partnership between the player and maker. Soundboards (tops) are made from best quality 'Swiss Pine' (Picea abies). In my opinion, this is the only wood which works for lutes. The tree grows all over Europe, but only in certain localities can it be harvested for musical instrument making. Plantations in the Alps have been in existence for centuries and it is reported that these plantations are being well managed. For the remainder of the lute, I use plenty of native English timber; sycamore, maple, cherry, walnut, ash, apple, pear, plum etc. They are all beautiful woods, relativly inexpensive and locally available. I air dry these woods myself, exactly as the old lute makers would have done. I now use far less exotic timber (tropical hardwoods). I do not intend to buy any ebony until the source of the timber can be shown to be acceptable by the Forest Stewardship Council. I have enough ebony for three or four fingerboards and will reserve this for professionals. I have more rosewood, enough for quite a few fingerboards and one baroque lute. It seems that rosewood is more scarce than endangered and good Indian rosewood is still available from Indian government auctions. There is no ivory, whalebone or Brazilian rosewood in my instruments. My latest lute has a finger board of Irish bog oak. In short, my lutes are authentically and responsibly constructed, and very playable. If you are interested in purchasing one of my lutes, please email me at: Email art@art-robb.co.uk Or phone 0044-(0)1666-822945 Or write to 79 Gloucester Road, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 OAJ, England At the moment the waiting list is about eight months and I ask a non-refundable deposit of about 15% to confirm an order.