invention vii

This is one of two virtually identical bowable fretless lutes built in the late 90s. Its twin was the very first instrument I ever sold. It is set up primarily like a traditional medieval lute with six double-courses of strings tuned in unison but my neck is highly radiused to make the courses playable with a bow, as well as by traditional plucking with a plectrum. 

The neck is Honduran mahogany with a cocobola fingerboard. The body is made from a large gourd covered with a soundboard made of braced spruce. The body is filled with a complex network of springs and resonant bronze pieces which give an acoustic reverb to its tone, and is very pleasant when bowed. It is electroacoustically amplified with a piezo pickup under the bridge, not present in these photos. 

It is strung with silk steel strings which also give it a unique tone between that of a classical and a steel-string instrument. Since I did not ever play it in a way representative of traditional lute repertoire it has been through a plethora of open tunings. 

Photos by Adrian Buckmaster