Restoring an Archlute 1950’s Papazian Theorboed Archlute
The task was to restore a partially collapsed modern archlute. it was originally a renaissance lute-- made by the great master Manouk Papazian and later "theorboed"--that is, modified by the addition of a pegbox extension that provides an added "harp" of five-foot bass strings beside--but not on top of--the original fretboard.

The soundboard has been successfully removed with virtually no injury. But evidence shows previous injury from an earlier effort to remove the soundboard. Here I inspect the transversal braces (during the Renaissance, the precise spacing between them was derived using numerological principles!). It seems oddly understructured as lutes go.


The braces had been distorted by the cumulative effects of string tension, and in several cases, had actually pulled away from the soundboard, causing the visible distortion evident on the outside.