BOISE, Idaho — The gentle hum and pluck of an ancient instrument fills the air as Joe Baldassarre plays a Medieval tune. The guitar he uses is unique -- the ornate body is inlaid with thousands of ...

Click to view Stringed instruments are diverse in sound and design, but they all share the same basic shape. That similarity hadn’t really bugged anyone too much for the last few hundred years, but ...

The Blackbird Rider Nylon is an odd guitar, a mix of the traditional and the high-tech. First, the "nylon" in the name refers to the strings -- the guitar itself is made from carbon fiber, from the ...

It’s not the kind instrument that lunges out and grabs you by the lapels, but the lute has been known to mesmerize even the most apathetic listener. “In the 16th century, some of the very finest ...

Wait long enough and an old-style musical instrument, much like an out-of-date piece of clothing, might eventually come back in fashion. Or do what lutenist Ronn McFarlane is doing and take an ...

Larry Brown likes lutes. He's probably made more of them than anyone in the history of lute making since the Renaissance, around 1,300 or so. He also makes violins, violas, reproductions of antique ...

This month's Early Music Series in Grayslake features a concert by Nigel North, proclaimed by one music critic as "the greatest performer of the instrument of all time." Yet I don't even know the word ...