Renaissance Lute 8c LLD® Galilei

Quality, refinement, and tradition.

Le Luth Doré® lutes, early guitars, and mandolins are designed in Paris by experienced European luthiers and handcrafted to the highest standards of instrument making.

Each LLD® instrument embodies over forty years of combined expertise among master luthiers, supported by twenty years of musical expertise from internationally renowned lutenist Miguel Serdoura.

The sound, resonance, and beauty of our instruments depend directly on the quality of the woods used. That’s why we carefully select each species, naturally age the wood, and ensure optimal acoustic performance and exceptional longevity.

Each LLD® lute, early guitar, or mandolin is a true work of art: born from a rigorous selection of noble materials and brought to life by the passionate hands of our craftsmen until perfection is achieved.

Made exclusively from selected solid woods and according to impeccable quality criteria, LLD® instruments meet the expectations of the most demanding musicians seeking superior sound and an authentic musical experience.

All LLD® instruments come with an exclusive, modern, elegant, and protective fiberglass hard case. Equipped with an integrated climate control system, it ensures optimal protection against the hazards of transport, storage, and environmental fluctuations.

• Soundboard: solid grade A spruce with more open grain, enhancing harmonic richness and sonic complexity
• Body: figured sapelli, sanded and protected with a matte transparent varnish revealing its natural dark reddish-brown hue
• Purflings: ebony
• Neck, bridge, and pegbox: maple, sanded and black varnished
• Pegs: ebony
• Fingerboard and frets on the soundboard: ebony
• Slightly curved fingerboard (about 2 mm)
• Fingerboard frets: sheep gut
• Nut: natural cow bone
• Rosette: laser-carved
• Strings: Aquila Nylgut®
• Included: LLD® FG-R hard case
• Included: two LLD® L1 case straps

Wood and Color Characteristics

The soundbox of the LLD® Galilei 8-course Renaissance lute is made from figured sapelli. This dense tonewood features very distinctive grain patterns forming attractive ribbons parallel to the wood fibers. Figured sapelli is relatively hard yet remains easy to carve.

The natural dark reddish-brown color of our figured sapelli, coated with a thin layer of transparent oil varnish, gives our LLD® lutes an appearance closely resembling that of historical lutes made by the famous 16th-century luthier Laux Mahler. Indeed, Mahler was renowned for his very dark reddish-brown oil varnish, which no modern luthier has yet been able to replicate. We believe our choice of figured sapelli provides the closest aesthetic match to Mahler’s varnish.

Sound Characteristics

Figured sapelli offers subtle yet complex harmonics, a warm tone across the entire range, a strong midrange presence, and deep basses. Both flamed maple and figured sapelli produce warm and bright sounds, but sapelli stands out with more pronounced highs and deeper lows.

The sound of figured sapelli features a powerful midrange, excellent punch, bright and airy highs, while retaining warmth in the low and mid registers. In comparison, flamed maple develops greater richness and complexity with playing.

Figured sapelli is an exotic, fast-growing, renewable wood that is protected from overexploitation, making it an excellent ecological choice.

Figured Sapelli or Flamed Maple?

Figured sapelli is harder than flamed maple. Both woods tend to be direct, bright, and warm, but figured sapelli produces more pronounced highs and deeper lows—this is the main sonic difference between the two.

Flamed maple has a very direct but warm sound, with fewer harmonics and less complexity than figured sapelli. What you hear initially with flamed maple remains throughout the note’s duration. This wood must be chosen according to its age to be fully appreciated.

Figured sapelli produces a slightly less direct sound than maple, with more harmonics and generally adds a bit more tonal complexity.

The Soundboard

Spruce is the most commonly used wood for the soundboards of European lute family instruments. LLD® exclusively uses premium-grade solid spruce soundboards of excellent quality.

The soundboard strongly influences the lute’s tone, although the soundbox also plays a key role. It affects responsiveness, sustain, part of the harmonic color, and the fundamental tonal quality of each note.

Taking into account the differences between flamed maple (which emphasizes fundamentals) and figured sapelli (which emphasizes harmonics), we selected two different spruces to find the right balance.

The fine-grained spruce used with flamed maple lutes is a high-quality tonewood, rigid and relatively light. It produces wide dynamics and a strong fundamental sound.

The more open-grained spruce used with figured sapelli lutes is also a high-quality tonewood, somewhat less rigid and lighter. It produces stronger harmonics and somewhat muffled fundamentals.

Instrument Setup

Before shipment, each LLD® lute is carefully inspected in Paris by a professional luthier trained at the conservatory. When necessary, it is adjusted by a Parisian specialist skilled in the construction, restoration, and repair of quality professional historic and modern lutes.

Our instruments are precisely crafted and then fine-tuned to ensure the correct scooping of the soundboard as well as the optimal nut and bridge heights to optimize string action.

History of the Lute

The lute is probably the most widespread type of string instrument in the world. In Europe, it enjoyed great popularity from the 15th to the 18th century, playing a key role both in court music and popular music. It is frequently depicted in artworks from the Middle Ages, as well as the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was the quintessential plucked string instrument of these eras.

Originating in the Middle East under the Arabic name ʿūd, it was introduced to Europe in the 13th century. The European lute is distinguished by its rounded pear-shaped body, a neck with a pegbox angled backward, and strings attached to a glued bridge on the soundboard. It features a circular sound hole adorned with a finely carved wooden rosette.

The earliest European lutes followed the model of Arabic instruments, with four strings played using a plectrum cut from a feather shaft. Around the mid-14th century, the strings were grouped in pairs called courses, tuned in unison or, for the basses, in octaves. By the late 15th century, the plectrum was abandoned in favor of finger plucking, and movable gut frets were added to the fingerboard. The instrument then adopted a fifth course. The introduction of frets was a decisive advance, enabling more precise polyphonic playing and better intonation.

The Renaissance Lute

In the 16th century, the classic form of the Renaissance lute emerged, with six courses (the highest course consisting of a single string) tuned to G–C–F–A–D–G, covering a range from G² to C⁴. Subsequently, additional courses were added, increasing the total beyond six.

Among the most renowned luthiers of this era were Laux Maler, Hans Frei, Vendelio Venere, Moeses, and Magno Tieffenbrucker.

As the instrument evolved, a more codified playing technique appeared alongside a specific notation system: tablature. This system represented the courses as horizontal lines and notes by letters or numbers indicating which fret to press and which string to pluck, integrating rhythmic information.

The Archlute, Chitarrone, and Theorbo

At the start of the 17th century, the seven-course lute was modified by adding extra bass strings, giving rise to instruments with eight, nine, or ten courses. This extension required a longer neck and an additional pegbox to accommodate the new strings, called diapasons. These advanced instruments became known as archlute, chitarrone, and theorbo.

The Baroque Lute

Shortly after 1600, French lutenists introduced changes to the instrument’s tuning, leading to decades of experimentation. Around 1650, a new tuning known today as the D minor tuning became standard. The number of courses increased further in the 18th century, reaching up to thirteen.

The first six courses formed a D minor triad (A²–D³–F³–A³–D⁴–A⁴), followed by five to seven additional courses extending down to low A. These D minor lutes, now called Baroque lutes, exist in versions with eleven, twelve, or thirteen courses, depending on the repertoire.

Modern lutenists tune their lutes, vihuelas, archlutes, and theorbos at various reference pitches, generally between 392 Hz and 470 Hz, depending on the instrument type, repertoire, and ensemble practices. Historically, no standard pitch was fixed.

Today, the usual tunings are:

– Renaissance lute at 440 Hz

– Baroque lute at 415 Hz