I find myself again where I was last summer: dreading the heat and loathe to be out in the garage in my workspace. It’s still early summer, yet temperatures are already reaching 96 ° F / 35 ° C regularly. It’s promising to be a sweaty season. My goal is to contribute something towards my build project every week, in some shape or form, even if it’s just research or studying tablature and technique for the day when I can actually play a lute.
In these still days beneath the sun, I have been looking at the Early Music Shop’s lutes again and again. My significant other recently shared this site with me after hearing my frustration with my lack of progress and general lute related lamentations. Back in 2019, I decided to build my own lute since I could not afford to purchase one. After a couple of years of saving and learning that Early Music Shop’s has very affordable student, I’m torn. Would buying a lute help my journey towards building my own lute? I’ve never seen a lute in person, perhaps having a professionally made model would be useful. Would buying a lute discourage me from completing my project? What if I obtain a lute and discover I don’t like it? I’m not sure how I might handle losing this interest after almost three years of obsessively learning about lutes and close to one year my building project. While the student lutes are certainly affordable, it’s still no small sum for me. And while I have been working on this project for a year already, I am only in the early stages yet. The luthier I purchased these plans from estimated working about 3 hours per week, with completion in one year. This is definitely a fair estimate if I were more consistent and if I did not have to backtrack. You may recall that I initially began following instrument plans from the Guild of American Luthiers and Robert Lundberg’s process, but had to shift to David Van Edward’s plans as my woodworking skills are so green and Van Edward’s includes more detailed instruction. If I’m still at least another year from completion, would that year be better spent learning to play with the EMS student lute or focusing on building my own lute?