A free set of Vihuela plans

[Jan van Cappelle]

As a little summer surprise I've shared one of my building plans for free.

A year ago some of my friends and students at the Bouwerskontakt lutherie course asked whether they could make some historical instruments. A baroque lute (plans to follow) and a Vihuela de Mano.

For the vihuela we decided on a smaller version of the Chambure model, kept in the Cité de la Musique in Paris. The reason is that a vihuela in G is very practical for players, especially in a 7-course version; it’s tuned the same way as an alto lute. You can make both 6- and 7-course models with this set of plans.

This is an ideal instrument to start with. You don’t need huge amount of woods, and is rather simple to build. The construction is quite similar to a classical guitar. In a way it is a more basic version.

You can download the plans at my blog:

https://thedutchluthier.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/free-vihuela-plans/

Have fun building!

Jan