As you might know, the care of any given lute is an important issue to talk about! The care of a medieval lute is basically no different from the care for, let’s say a Renaissance or Baroque lute. Regarding medieval plucked instruments, the lute is, for sure, the most fragile instrument, especially in comparison to the citole and the medieval gittern, which both were made from a massive block of wood. The following principles might be helpful to you, especially if you are new to the field in general:
- Avoid humiditiy-changes! Keep your lute in its case when you are not playing it. Nowadays (opposite to medieval times) the dry air in our well-climatized houses is the main issue! That is even more relevant, when temperature and humidity are inconsistent inside your home. If you have natural gut strings on your lute, keep your lute in its bag or – even better – hardcase.
- Don’t panic about some cracks and scratches! As the lutes’ soundboard is so thin (between 1 and 2 mm), it can easily crack, caused by changes in humidity or by impact. Normally, you can play your lute regularly despite the crack! If you are annoyed by it, you can take a high-quality plastic tape and cover it carefully. A loose bar inside the body is more difficult, as it will often causes buzzing sounds, sometimes only on one specific tone. Test goes as follows: Press down gently on the edges of the soundboard. If a bar got lose, you will most likely hear a creaking sound in a specific area. In this case, do not open the soundboard yourself, unless you are a craftsman or very experienced in the field! This is even more important if there is any damage to the bridge, affecting the tension on the strings.
- Moving the instrument: If the instrument is not in your hand, the best place for it is in its bag or case. If you must lay it down anywhere else quickly, lay it on its strings! Do not ever (!!!) let your instrument around kitchens, food-tables, unattended in the presence of small children or in reach of pets! Everything that can give stains to your lute can become a real problem afterwards, especially if they end up on the soundboard, which usually have unsealled and particularly sensitive surfaces!
- Instrument finishes: If the instrument does get dirty despite your careful attention, it can be cleaned it with a damp cloth and a drop of detergent, but it must be dryed immediately afterwards! Larger defects in the finishing must be discussed with a specialist. The sensitive soundboard of a lute requires special attention. Traditionally, lute tops were not varnished but sealed, either with oil-based varnishes, waxes, or with egg white. Modern soundboards are usually slightly varnished to protect against soiling, especially caused by the little finger of the right hand being placed upon the surface. You can clean a dirty soundboard using white spirit or pure turpentine oil, if the soiling is not too immense. Stay away from wax polishes to clean the top, though.
- Tuning pegs: If pegs no longer turn smoothly or they become stiff, a thin coat of the dry soap rubbed onto the shaft should help. If a peg slips too much on the other hand, you can use a small quanitity of chalk as a means of obstruction, creating a little bit more friction.
- Strings: Generally spoken, only use the strings recommended for your individual instrument! In the case of the medieval lute, you can choose either nylgut-products (actually made for Renaissance lutes, but they still work out great), or gut strings. When you use gut strings, talk to the producer about the tuning you have in mind and tell them the exact size and the scale of your lute (scale = the space between the saddle and the bridge). This way, the gut string can be produced with the precise size and diameter. Especially when you use gut strings, only apply the recommended tuning – do not go higher in pitch! The same goes for the use of nylgut strings; if you have a lute that is made for a G-tuning, do not change on to an A-tuning, as the increased tension might destroy the bridge of your lute or damage your tuning pegs (the lutes tuning pegs are quite thinner than, for example, violin pegs). If you do use natural gut strings, also please definately check the manufacturers instructions for its care!
- Tying on the strings: Only use the conventional methods, such as the loop-techniques on the bridge and the tuning pegs, do not experiment with this! I know, because I messed up and my bridge broke, due to several mistakes I made! If you do not know how it is being done properly, check the first link below, google some images or go to a good YouTube tutorial dealing with the topic!
- The nut: If the strings do not slide properly over the nut, use dry soap or a graphite pencil in the carvings to make it groove more smoothly over the nut. In most cases, you do more damage to the nut-hole if you try to hone it down yourself! If the nut, in fact, is done seriously incorrect, please contact the luthier or producer of the particular instrument in question or a qualified luthier or instrument workshop in your environment!
- The Frets: The frets of a medieval lute are basically gut strings (or nylgut strings) tied around the neck. After being knotted, the end is being burned very briefly and (of course!) carefully. If the frets of your lute get loosened to much, check the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_pXOoBVLU If your are unsure, whether or not you can repair the fret, contact your luthier or a local workshop!
If you want to read more in detail about the topic, you can visit this website: http://lute.cepelak.cz/care.pdf
Another good ressource is: https://www.lutesociety.org/pages/is-your-lute-set-up-well
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