OTHER INSTRUMENTS

A lute is a particularly magestic instrument, and used to be the primary instrument for music students. I designed and built this one from scratch as my first project in RISD, as well as a system for further lute construction, when I wend there for graduate studies.

Back staves, neck and headstock are maple.

The area carved into the soundhole is referred to as a "rose", in lute terminology. My challenge in designing this was to integrate a fourfold (cross) and a sixfold (star of David) geometric symetry in the design of the "knot". There is another well-known lute rose, named the "The Knot of Leonardo."

This was the third Genesi guitar I made in 1972. The concept was to incorporate further details accentuating the bindings and corners.

Neck is made of birdseye maple, inserted and glued with a longitudinal dovetail--a very tricky joint to carve. 

The design for this guitar occurred in a dream, which I later drew, with the idea to  test the effect of coupling the top with the back. The result was a very deep bass response. This classical is particularly loud.

The beauty of this instrument is as nice as the natural reverb of it's timbre. But as a guitarist, I can definitely say it could use a "waist".

I was inspired to build this lute after seeing one made by the late luthier, Anthony Murray. His brought tears to my eyes. This one is a seven course design with 13 strings.