A Thanks
We want to thank Wayne Cripps for his dedicated service to the lute community. When we heard he was retiring, we were inspired to start a new for sale list to carry on his fine example.
Appropriate instruments for this list
This list is for lutes and related fretted stringed instruments in vogue primarily from the medieval to eras after baroque.
Security and Spam Warning
The vast majority of people who have bought instruments had no problems with the purchase process and found them as advertised. But as you no doubt know, the Internet can be an unfriendly place with many criminals. Please consider the following suggestions:
- Use PayPal or another service that has a dispute process.
- Do not accept checks for more than the purchase price plus shipping.
- Meet in a safe place if meeting in person.
- Consider shipping insurance.
- To minimize spam, use a special email address.
- Consider using a cellphone or a “Google Voice” account rather than a home phone number.
- Consider Zoom or other video connection to see each other and the instrument.
How to sell your instrument:
- Where to send your request – Send an email to forsale@lutesocietyofamerica.org
- Subject line – Put “lute for sale” in the subject line. Please include only one instrument per email.
- Monetary units – Please specify monetary units other than US dollars as text (pounds, euros). Or if you want to use symbols for two common ones, use “€” or “£” including the ampersand and semicolon.
- Include location – Include city or state and country so people know where the instrument is located. Street address is not necessary.
- Phone number – We do not recommend including a phone number as telemarketers might add you to their lists.
- Email address – You must include an e-mail address where we can reach you.
- Ad text – Please send your ad in an email. Note that if you are not writing in English some of the accents can get lost in transmission.
- Pictures – If you send pictures, try and crop them close to the instrument to shorten download time. Cameras focus better in bright light, so consider taking your pictures outdoors. Look at what is in the background of the picture too! You might not want your dirty laundry in the picture. Please don’t use generic names for picture files. Instead of “baroque-lute.jpg”, please use something unique such as “Nancy-baroque-lute.jpg”. Also, name your picture files with no spaces. For example, use “Nancy-baroque-lute.jpg” or “Nancy-baroqueLute.jpg” instead of “Nancy baroque Lute.jpg”.
- For a detailed guide on photographing your lute by Lynda Sayce, see: Photographing Your Lute
- Note: We will update ads as soon as we can. If your ad is not posted in a week your message may have not reached us, so send it again.
- Check your ad – Please check your ad and alert us to any mistakes.
- Changes to ads – If you want to change something, please send the changes, not the whole ad. If you say “change the price from 4500 to 4200” or “add a line that says …” we can quickly make the change. If we already have the pictures please don’t send them again! Adding pictures is time-consuming.
- Professional builders – If you are a professional builder you may list lutes that you currently have on hand for immediate sale. Please tell us when the instrument is sold. LSA members may also advertise their services in our Professional Directory.
- Deleting your ad – Please contact us as soon as you sell your instrument or if it’s no longer for sale.
- Patience – It may take a year or more to sell your instrument.
A Request
The For Sale list is offered here to the entire lute community, both LSA members and non-members. If you’re not a member, please consider joining the LSA or making a contribution.