After several months of turmoil and indecision, I purchased a lute from Early Music Shop. It is an 8 course Renaissance Lute modeled after lutes made by the luthier Hieber and I absolutely love it. I’m still trying to decide on a name for it but it’s been wonderful to have an actual lute in my hands after years of obsession. I still plan to build my own lute but now I’ll have some playing experience once the build is complete. I’ve already learned so much about its construction just by having this lute for comparison. I’ve also learned a lot about tuning, and had to order some extra strings for the first course as I snapped the string twice in a row just while tuning. Diane Poulton writes about using a piano or tuning fork in her book “A Tutor for the Renaissance Lute” and I felt very fortunate to have a tuning app on my phone that could quickly guide me. Some peg paste was also a useful purchase and learning how to properly wind the string around the peg to prevent the pegs from sticking had the greatest impact.
All in all, a great learning experience and I do not regret my decision. I’ve read a lot of perspectives online that discuss the quality of these economical lutes and perhaps I lack the experience to know better, but the sound is very sweet to me. My next hurdle while I wait out the hot summer months will be learning to read tablature, as I can only currently read modern standard notation.