Renaissance Workshop Company
The foremost manufacturer of early musical instruments worldwide

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Instrument & Kits

Spares & Tools

Books & Drawings

1. The "Guadalupe" (pictures above), now in the "Musée Jacquemart-Andrée" (Paris),
2. The "Chambure" in the "Cité de la Musique" (Paris), and
3. The "Vihuela de Quito", in the "Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús" (Quito).

Another instrument strung with five double courses built in 1581, in Lisbon by Belchior Dias, now in the Royal College of Music (London), could have been a vihuela, but many consider that it actually is better catalogued as a renaissance or baroque guitar.

A magnificent 6-course baroque vihuela by Francisco Sanguino (Sevilla 1768), exhibited in the museum of José Luis Romanillos at Sigüenza (Spain).

In the baroque period there are also instruments called vihuelas that differ from the baroque guitars that the vihuelas are strung with courses of doubled strings.

The Renaissance Spanish Vihuela is a project I've been thinking about for years. No one gets into early lutherie for the money (no one with a clue, anyway), so I got an involuntary crash course in the discipline after I left the university. I've learned a lot about early lutherie since then, most of it the hard way.

Over time, I've noticed that people who love early music love also its instruments. And because the prohibitive prices of the authentic ancient ones, a replica can perfectly do the job. But good replicas are also scarce because many only try to be aesthetically similar leaving the historical, acoustical and musical subjects in a second or third level.

Making a good replica of a relatively unknown musical instrument it's a scientific job with a huge dose of artistic tasks. But aspiring creative types are pretty easily discouraged by the spectre of the "starving artist." It doesn't have to be that way! And not enough people realize that.

The aim

So, I want to produce replicas of a renaissance Spanish vihuela. The "Guadalupe", probably. Same dimensions, materials and constructive procedures and an expert labour, though not so decorated⁽¹⁾ with a starting price of 1800 euros (€). This is typically less than half the price of this type of instruments nowadays. It is the policy of the Renaissance Workshop Company, to produce also a kit with the same high quality materials and all the time-consuming parts already done for those who, for any reason, prefer to build the instrument by themselves. This kit will have a price of 600 €. We will also prepare the set of documentation (full size drawing, instruction manual and pictures of the building process) with the standard license to be sold at about 85 €.

From our experience, we know that surviving with those prices is quite a challenging objective. In this business all the materials of the best quality are really scarce and expensive and come often from abroad. The transportations and import duties are also very burdensome, if not strictly forbidden.

The instrument wouldn't just be for professional musicians, either. People who want to have a very good instrument at very affordable price can benefit from this Renaissance Spanish Vihuela, either finished or in kit form.

The Renaissance Workshop Company and myself have a six-month schedule from a successful renaissance Spanish vihuela to manufacturing.

Open points

We though to replicate the 'Guadalupe' simplifying the ornamentation and eliminating the number or the stones, but leaving the place just in case some want to have them added. You can decide to replicate any other vihuela instead of the 'Guadalupe'.

Whatever your contribution is, you will be consulted to define the above open points of the project. Your opinion and vote will be taking into account proportionally to your contribution level.

How we are using the money

The 15,000 € we need would go towards paying all the implicated people a fair price for their work and all the materials and producing costs of the first five finished instruments and ten kits.

As you can see, we work with a very tight budget and can not squander money.

References

We have designed and manufactured many other instruments and kits prior to the Renaissance Spanish Vihuela, that now form part of our permanent catalogue. You can find those instruments and kits for sale just in this website. I encourage you to buy them and check out how well they're made.

Hope you decide to contribute! Thanks again.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Decoration levels

Even though this is one of the open points of this project, we envision three levels of decoration for the finished Vihuelas priced 1800 €, 2200 € and 2600 € respectively. This is typically less than half the price of this type of instruments nowadays.

⁽²⁾ Spanish Lotería Nacional

The Lotería Nacional the most traditional of Spanish games is part of the Spanish history. The Lotería celebrates 200 years in 2012, two centuries of making thousands of dreams come true, making the hopes of millions a reality. Every week LAE brings you a bit of luck.

LAE is the responsible for the management and marketing of lotteries and gambling nationwide. LAE is an acronym for Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, a state-owned company established by Royal Decree-Law 13/2010, of 3 December, adscribed to the Ministry of Economy and Finance through the general Directorate of State Assets, with registered address at C/ Capitán Haya 53, 28020 Madrid and holder of Spanish Tax ID Nº A86171964.

Our strategy

According to the amount collected, we will buy for the same draw different numbers. Those numbers and the amount that you play will be communicated to you in advance.

Typically we will share the money buying different tickets finished in 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Due to the prize policy of the LAE, three of those numbers will necessarily have a refund and so, the minimum 30% refund is guaranteed.

With less probability, in an ordinary draw, there are many other prizes, being the maximum of about x40000 (40,000 times the amount paid) and much more in extraordinary draws.

Copyright © 1999 Renaissance Workshop Company Ltd.
Last modification: 03 de mayo de 2019

Phone:(+34) 91 450 30 50