Lutes and Guitars made by Clive Titmuss

A new feature is the addition of sound samples of the instruments.  These samples were made using the actual instrument in my studio with a one-piece digital recorder.  They are one unedited take with only room sound and no compression or equalization, so you can hear all the heavy breathing and string noises unfiltered. It's a more realistic picture of the timbre and playing potential of each instrument than a highly processed file because it's closer to what the player actually hears.

They are available on the web in two formats--as a quick-loading 128 kbps MP3 file, or as a larger .wav file, which takes a few minutes to download and play. You are prompted to select a player when you click on the blued link "Click for demo".  In most players you may save the file.  The file names all begin with my name, so you can archive them and find them in one place in your player files.

The mp3 files sound better in some players than others.  iTunes, for example, apparently doesn't like mp3 files delivered through the web.These files, however, sound fine in QuickTime, Windows Media Player etc.  Different browsers have slightly different ways of displaying and playing the files and offering their options.  Try a few things to get the best results. 

The .wav file is the original file, works with all players, and it's worth waiting for if you are really interested in buying the instrument and hearing a better representation of its real sound. 

Baroque Guitar after an anonymous Spanish model,
c. 1690's, made in 1998.

total length: 96 cm
upper bout: 23.5 cm
lower bout: 27 cm
string length: 67.5 cm
nut width: 50 mm
bridge spacing 12.5 on centre

SOLD to happy guitarist in Ontario!

This instrument has five-rib pear and macassar ebony sides, yew and macassar ebony back, Orford cedar top, heraldic inlays in rosewood, Spanish cedar slipper foot neck and block, plum pegs and very tall spruce bars. Comes with a mahogany plywood lined and fitted case.

The guitar's model dates from the later period of five-course instruments, having a large and deep body and minimal barring. Very outspoken and with lots of rich sound, It's ideally suited to the music of the Sanz and Guerau guitar books.

Currently strung in gut in Italian tuning (e', b/b, g/g',d/d, a/a, it could easily be used in almost any tuning. The bass is particularly good when the fourth and fifth courses are strung in the lower octave, great for some of what Sanz referred to as "noisy music". (He was a sensitive soul.)

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Spanish Baroque Guitar...........................2300 CAD

Baroque Guitar after Cocho in Vermeer decor by Clive Titmuss, made in 1995

SOLD! to a happy buyer in Japan

total length: 93 cm
upper bout: 20 cm
lower bout: 24.5 cm
string length: 65 cm
nut width: 50 mm
bridge spacing 12.5 on centre

This instrument has Brazilian rosewood sides, shaded yew back, Orford cedar top, pear and parchment rose, leather moustaches, rosewood veneered neck, ivory and ebony chevron binding, rosewood bridge. It comes with a very substantial fitted, lined and finished birch plywood case with good hardware.

The guitar is one of the most beautiful designs of the early Baroque, well-suited to Italian and Spanish repertoire in the Italian tuning. It is easy to play, very bright and resonant.

Terz guitar (G, C, f, a#, d', g') after a German model of the mid-19th century

String length: 540 mm
Total length: 820 mm
Lower bout: 265 mm
Upper bout: 230 mm
Body depth: 176 mm

SOLD! to a happy buyer in Alberta

This figured-maple instrument was made in 1997 as a prototype. There are several unique features including German jointed peghead (walnut with maple veneer), rosewood pegs, rosewood pin bridge with carved-leaf finials, and brass bar frets, which are very low profile.

It's a period guitar which is bright and easy to play. It comes with a stained, fitted and lined mahogany case. Currently strung with gut and copper overspun strings.

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Terz guitar with case..........................1800 CAD

Bass Lute in D after mid-16th century models

String length: 768 mm
Body width: 345 mm
Body depth: 140 mm

This lute was made in 1991. There are 21 shaded yew ribs symmetrically laid out around the centre rib. Boxwood pegs, ebony veneered neck, pegbox and fingerboard. Venetian filligree rose. Comes with a heavy-duty Baltic birch stained, fitted and lined case.

Ideal for continuo use with singing or choral performance, it is amazingly resonant and easy to play despite the size and string length. It enables a baritone to sing Elizabethan lute songs and is wonderful for those groaning pavans.

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Bass Lute 7-courses...............................3200 CAD

11-course baroque lute after Pietro Raillich, 164?

String length: 618 mm
Body width: 341mm
Body depth: 130 mm
String spacing at bridge: 14.5 mm on centre

Pietro Raillich was a German craftsman working in Venice. This instrument is modelled on one of the finest preserved from the 17th century, currently housed in Nuremberg. The characteristic shape is a manifestation of the the movement known as Mannerism, in which the rectilinear geometry of the previous era was convoluted into oval and curvilinear shapes.

The back is extremely flattened, while the profile is extremely broad for the string length. The original instrument was made from rosewood, but my copy is shaded yew with ebony fillets. I added a floral marquetry pegbox veneer, and gilded the rose in honor of Ennemond Gaultier's "Loss of the Golden Rose Lute" and "Le Roze d' Or." This characteristic shape can be seen in instruments depicted in Denis Gaultier's "Rhetorique des Dieux".

It's intended to be a vehicle for the music of Dufaut, Mesangeau, Pinel, and the transitional tunings of the mid-17th century. The wide string spacing of the bridge facilitates the hopping motion of the thumb in the bass courses which is featured in the early French style. The lute is also excellent for later German composers such as Reusner, Bittner, Logy--even Weiss and Bach.

The neck is veneered with stunning quartered Brazilian rosewood, and the pegbox is triple laminated with rosewood and holly. The pegs are boxwood; the bridge is pear with an ebony veneer; two turned ivory buttons complete the decor. The stringing is all-gut with pistoy and gimped basses by Dan Larson. The fitted and lined case in included.

Only the best materials were used to make the instrument.

This lute was made in 1998 and I recorded Reusner suites in C and F minor found on this site with it. I recommend that a serious buyer should listen to all these pieces to asses the sound and musical potential. A substantial essay and photos, as well as a short sound sample are found elsewhere on this site at

http://earlymusicstudio.com/photo_desc_lute_24.asp.

Raillich 11-course baroque lute...........6500 CAD.

6-course lute on the small Frei body, made 2005

SOLD to a happy lutenist in Australia!

string length: 622 mm
nut width: 57
string spacing at bridge: 12 on centre
body depth: 135
total length: 750
width 295

This lute is ideal for the large Italian, German, French and English repertoires of the 1500's. The materials are all premium quality: The back is yew, with a pear bridge, boxwood pegs, plum rosewood-trimmed pegbox, and boxwood and ebony-trimmed fingerboard, classic Fussen rose.

The top is an especially tight-grained piece of Engelmann spruce from Revelstoke, B.C., where some of Canada's largest and slowest growing spruce trees are found.

It has a low action, and is easy and pleasant to play, with hybrid stringing of gut and KF.  

It comes with a fitted, lined and stained/varnished re-inforced case with locking harware.

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13-course lute after 18th century German models, made 2009

I designed this lute to play the music of Weiss and Bach after models by Sebastian Schelle and Johann Christian Hoffman. It has a slightly condensed body depth and slightly greater string length, with a rose by Schelle (thanks to O. Wadsworth).

I re-designed the pegbox to resist the deformation which is commonly seen on these "aufsatz" lutes by laminating ebony and holly in a single piece construction from which the pegbox side is then sawn, re-inforced with an ebony stanchion, carved in tree-leaf motif. I also changed the nut design to have a more gradual slope to accomodate the stiff KF harp strings which I prefer to overspun. They sound much closer to gut-core basses than the conventional overspun strings now common on baroque lutes. They don't overwhelm the upper courses and they have wonderful tuning stability. The highest three courses are gut.  It's a better overall balance, more like an 11-course lute, minimizing the need for elaborate damping techniques. They are widely spaced, making the lute easier to play and to control.

This lute has 11 frets to the body, and 14 frets total, for the playing of Bach's violin solos (see my Tablatures). The 9 rib back is made from very high quality European maple, highly figured and undyed. The top is a superb quality piece of Black Forest spruce. The pegs are copied from Hofmann, made from lilac wood (Magnolia spp.), a beautiful and rare wood for pegs. The neck is veneered in quarter-sawn rosewood.

There is a substantial moulded ebony binding applied to the side which allows for playing at a table, and much less stress on the righ forearm.

It comes with a fitted, lined, re-inforced case made from Baltic birch with brass hardware.

It's certainly one of the finest lutes I have ever made. Fortunately, I made two.

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Click to Download Demo 2
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German model 13-course Baroque Lute.....9500 CAD