This is a 14 course archlute by Saadettin Sandi and Bahadir Sandi who are famous luthiers in Turkey. The body is maple and mahogany. The neck is mahogany. All the woods were dried for 10 years. Soundboard is high quality European spruce. The pegs are mahogany. The fingerboard and saddle are Venge. This archlute is made to the same specifications as the Sellas' archlute post circa 1639. The shortest strings are 57 cm. The longer strings are 83 cm. The body length is 42 cm. The body width is 32 cm. The body depth is 15cm. The total neck length is 66cm. The neck width at the body joint is 11 cm.
The strings are made by the Pyramid brand.
The tuning from thin to thick high pitch to low pitch is; a'a' e'e' bb gg dd AA GG FF E D C B A G. HOWEVER, this does NOT assume A440 as the standard pitch reference. IF YOU TRY TO TUNE TO A 440, YOU WILL BREAK THE FIRST STRING EVERY TIME. (You must tune to the pitch standards of the Renaissance and Baroque periods which is around G# or G. Tuning to A 440 will also put too much strain on the construction of the instrument which isn't designed to withstand that much tension). This archlute also comes with a kind of string winder/tuning key for easy tuning. Case included. I'm throwing in a cow horn Oud pick for fun and a homemade humidifier to protect the instrument in transit. The luthier who finished it was an apprentice and made a mistake with the frets which was then corrected but you can still see ghost impressions of where the last two frets used to be. Another mistake was made when applying varnish to the fingerboard. Between the nut and first fret the fingerboard's varnish was smudged. Neither the fret flaw nor the smudge flaw are easily noticeable. Has static non-slip pads on the back to prevent sliding when playing. They peel right off without damaging the finish.
