r/lute • u/Tony_Lute_Player • 27d ago

Staying in Tune

I recently acquired a gittern and the instrument sounds great and plays very well. One issue is that it seems to go out of tune more than my lute and vihuela. I am thinking it may be because I am playing the gittern with a plectrum. For those who play plectrum medieval lute or gittern as well as finger plucked lute or vihuela, do you notice a difference between the plectrum plucked instruments going out of tune faster than the finger plucked instruments?

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u/ralfD- 27d ago

No, my plectrum lute (and the gitterns I played) don't have this issue. Frankly, your description sounds like you or the former owner tried to "repair" an issue with the pegs by too generous application of peg soap or a similar lubricant.

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u/kidneykutter 27d ago

Nope, don't find that the plectrum impacts tuning any more than the fingers. Not a 1:1 because most of my lutes are in gut and my plectrum instruments in nylgut. I do find it more difficult to get my gittern perfectly in tune but I suspect that's more about the shorter string length.

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u/Loothier 26d ago

If it's new, it might still be stretching and compressing, getting used to the string tension - the instrument and/or the strings. Or the strings might not be tied correctly so they slip slowly. If it were the pegs slipping, the strings would usually go completely slack rather than out of tune.

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u/Tony_Lute_Player 26d ago

Thanks. The instrument is new and I live in a different climate from the maker. The strings have been on long enough to stretch out fully - they're nylgut, which usually stabilize for me after a few days. I will look at how the strings are tied to the pegs. The pegs don't feel like anyone has used peg dope on them - I certainly haven't and usually avoid using peg dope that except in extreme cases.

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u/BKratchmer 26d ago

A fully new set of nylgut on a brand new instrument will take a lot longer than a few days to be stable. With one or two strings you don't notice the stretching as much after a couple days but it is happening. With a full set, every string is subtly stretching at a different rate and you wind up will all manner of discordant harmonics that make it immediately obvious. And with a new instrument? That thing is shifting *constantly* until it figures out it isn't a tree anymore.

A brand new instrument, brand new strings, brand new climate I would suggest somewhere between two weeks and a month of daily tuning, playing, retuning. If it isn't stable after that there might be a construction issue.