Editing Lute (section)

== Construction ==
=== Soundboard ===
[[File:Lute maker tools - 1293.jpg|thumb|A lute being made in a workshop]]
Lutes are made almost entirely of wood. The [[sound board (music)|soundboard]] is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood (typically [[spruce]]). In all lutes the soundboard has a single (sometimes triple) decorated sound hole under the strings called the ''rose''. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or a decorative knot, carved directly out of the wood of the soundboard.

The geometry of the lute soundboard is relatively complex, involving a system of barring that places braces perpendicular to the strings at specific lengths along the overall length of the belly, the ends of which are angled to abut the ribs on either side for structural reasons. Robert Lundberg, in his book ''Historical Lute Construction'', suggests ancient builders placed bars according to whole-number ratios of the scale length and belly length. He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard (the "belly scoop") is a deliberate adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenist's right hand more space between the strings and soundboard.

Soundboard thickness varies, but generally hovers between {{cvt|1.5|and(-)|2|mm|2}}. Some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to produce desirable sonic results. The lute belly is almost never finished, but in some cases the luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of [[shellac]] or [[glair]] to help keep it clean. The belly joins directly to the rib, without a lining glued to the sides, and a cap and counter cap are glued to the inside and outside of the bottom end of the bowl to provide rigidity and increased gluing surface.

After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the edge of the soundboard. The half-binding is approximately half the thickness of the soundboard and is usually made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be extremely precise to avoid compromising structural integrity.

===Back===
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|image1 = 078 Museu de la Música, llaüts.jpg
|caption1 = Lutes by Matthäus Büchenberg, 1613 (left) and by Matteo Sellas, 1641 in [[Museu de la Música de Barcelona]]
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|caption2 = Various lutes exhibited at the [[Deutsches Museum]]
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The ''back'' or the shell is assembled from thin strips of hardwood (maple, cherry, ebony, rosewood, gran, wood and/or other tonewoods) called ''ribs'', joined (with glue) edge to edge to form a deep rounded body for the instrument. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength.<ref>{{cite web |website=www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/vanL/lute-inside.gif |title=Photo of lute internal}}</ref>

===Neck===
The ''[[Neck (music)|neck]]'' is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood (usually ebony) to provide durability for the ''[[fretboard]]'' beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the lute's fretboard is mounted flush with the top. The ''[[pegbox]]'' for lutes before the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] era was angled back from the neck at almost 90° (see image), presumably to help hold the low-tension strings firmly against the ''nut'' which, traditionally, is not glued in place but is held in place by string pressure only. The ''[[tuning peg]]s'' are simple pegs of hardwood, somewhat tapered, that are held in place by friction in holes drilled through the pegbox.

As with other instruments that use friction pegs, the wood for the pegs is crucial. As the wood suffers dimensional changes through age and loss of humidity, it must retain a reasonably circular cross-section to function properly—as there are no gears or other mechanical aids for [[Musical tuning|tuning]] the instrument. Often pegs were made from suitable fruitwoods such as European pearwood, or equally dimensionally stable analogues. Matheson, {{circa}} 1720, said, "If a lute-player has lived eighty years, he has surely spent sixty years tuning."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Das neu Eroffnet Orchestre|last=Mattheson|first=Johann|year=1713|location=Hamburg|pages=247ff}}</ref>

===Bridge===
The bridge, sometimes made of a fruitwood, is attached to the soundboard typically between a fifth and a seventh of the belly length. It does not have a separate saddle but has holes bored into it to which the strings attach directly. The bridge is made so that it tapers in height and length, with the small end holding the trebles and the higher and wider end carrying the basses. Bridges are often colored black with carbon black in a binder, often shellac and often have inscribed decoration. The scrolls or other decoration on the ends of lute bridges are integral to the bridge, and are not added afterwards as on some Renaissance [[guitar]]s (cf [[Joachim Tielke]]'s guitars).

===Frets===
The [[fret]]s are made of loops of [[Gut (zoology)|gut]] tied around the neck. They fray with use, and must be replaced from time to time. A few additional partial frets of wood are usually glued to the body of the instrument, to allow stopping the highest-pitched courses up to a full octave higher than the open string, though these are considered anachronistic by some (though John Dowland and Thomas Robinson describe the practice of gluing wooden frets onto the soundboard). Given the choice between nylon and gut, many luthiers prefer to use gut, as it conforms more readily to the sharp angle at the edge of the fingerboard.

===Strings===
Strings were historically made of animal gut, usually from the small intestine of sheep (sometimes in combination with metal) and are still made of gut or a synthetic substitute, with metal windings on the lower-pitched strings. Modern manufacturers make both gut and nylon strings, and both are in common use. Gut is more authentic for playing period pieces, though unfortunately it is also more susceptible to irregularity and pitch instability owing to changes in humidity. Nylon offers greater tuning stability, but is seen as anachronistic by purists, as its timbre differs from the sound of earlier gut strings. Such concerns are moot when more recent compositions for the lute are performed.

Of note are the ''catlines'' used as basses on historical instruments. Catlines are several gut strings wound together and soaked in heavy metal solutions to increase the string mass. Catlines can be quite large in diameter compared to wound nylon strings of the same pitch. They produce a bass that differs somewhat in timbre from nylon basses.

The lute's strings are arranged in ''[[course (music)|courses]]'', of two strings each, though the highest-pitched course usually consists of only a single string, called the ''chanterelle''. In later Baroque lutes, two upper courses are single. The courses are numbered sequentially, counting from the highest pitched, so that the ''chanterelle'' is the ''first course'', the next pair of strings is the ''second course'', etc. Thus an 8-course Renaissance lute usually has 15 strings, and a 13-course Baroque lute has 24.

The courses are tuned in unison for high and intermediate pitches, but for lower pitches one of the two strings is tuned an octave higher (the course where this split starts changed over the history of the lute). The two strings of a course are virtually always stopped and plucked together, as if a single string—but in rare cases, a piece requires that the two strings of a course be stopped or plucked separately. The tuning of a lute is a complicated issue, described in a section of its own [[#Tuning conventions|below]]. The lute's design makes it extremely light for its size.