Lute

The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. It evolved from an instrument originally developed in the Middle East, which was also the ancestor of the superficially similar oud. The words 'lute' and 'oud' are both derived from Arabic al‘ud, "the wood". The player of a lute is called a lutenist, and a maker of lutes (or guitars) is called a luthier.

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Lutes are made almost entirely of wood. The top (front of the instrument) is a thin flat slice of resonant wood as in a classical guitar, except oval or teardrop-shaped. In all but the oldest or most exotic lutes the top has a single 'hole' under the strings, called the rose; rare instruments may have several roses instead. The hole is not open as on a guitar, but rather covered with a grille in the form of a twining vine or knot, carved directly out of the wood of the top (see image at right). The back is assembled from thin strips of wood called ribs, shaped like the strips of a banana peel and joined edge to edge to form a deep rounded body for the instrument. There are struts inside to give the instrument strength; see the photo among the external links below. The neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of harder wood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most stringed instruments, the fretboard is mounted flush with the top. The tuning head for lutes before the Baroque era was turned back from the neck at almost 90? (see image), presumably to help hold the low-tension strings firmly against the nut. The tuning pegs are simple pegs of wood, somewhat tapered, that are held in place by friction in holes through the peg box. (There are no gears or other aides for tuning the instrument, which fact — along with the large number of strings — makes lutes tedious if not difficult to tune. Thus lutenists share a joke with historical harpists, "We spend half our time tuning and the other half playing out of tune.")

String instrument: A string instrument (also "stringed instrument") is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....

Oud: :There are also several universities and organizations named UD. For the Dutch architect, see Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud....

Arabic: redirect Arabic language...

Lute related Images and Photos (experimental)

Lute	Lute Player c. 1600 (detail)	Angel with Lute	Star Trek Original Series Vulcan Lute Prop Replica
An Interior with a Lute Player and a Woman Holding a Parrot	A Man Playing the Lute	Mary Magdalene Playing a Lute	Mary Magdalene Playing the Lute
Portrait of a Jester with a Lute	Vanitas Still Life with a Nautilus and a Lute