BAROQUE GUITAR
This version is based on a 5 course instrument by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1688 in the Asmolean Museum, Oxford
The outline of the front is bordered in African Blackwood and pufled. The decorative inset rose is in fruitwood and the rose-hole has an inlaid ornamental border which is repeated along the top of the bridge. At the upper end of the front where the tab extends along the neck, there is an engraving of two Putti supporting a crown.
The back, ribs, head and neck are in figured maple. Narrow ebony/boxwood/ebony stripes run down the back dividing it into four sections. These stripes are then continued up the arm to both sides of the head. The fingerboard is veneered with African Blackwood edged with bone. There are 18 ebony frets, the last six extending along the belly. The nut is bone; the ornate tuning pegs and end pin are made of boxwood.
Like the lute, the whole construction is very light, and finished on the front with 'glair'; the minimum of oil varnish elsewhere allows the instrument to resonate freely.
SPECIFICATIONS
Length: 1000mm
Maximum width: 290mm
Maximum rib depth: 94mm
String length: 691mm
Tuning: a common tuning for the five course guitar was: a-a d-d b-b e'=-e but because of the long string length on this guitar, all the courses have been lowered by three semi-tones.