Thanks, all.

You make a perfectly valid point, of course, Mr. Duck. I suppose it all depends how "authentike" we want to be. In my view, we never can be fully authentic, since so much of what we do is guesswork. For example, modern gut strings are still in development for early instruments, because the renaissance and baroque gut string makers kept all their secrets. And indeed, for much medieval music, if we only played what we're sure of in terms of instruments and actual notes, we'd never play anything at all!

And surely we play music for the love and joy of it. (In any activity, you can always tell those who are forever watching others to see if they are dancing or playing in the 'correct' or 'authentic' way - they never smile.)

And you're right: modern inventions often do the job better. Machine heads are a damn sight more reliable than wood on wood pegs, I can tell you. Who was it in the late renaissance who said that a lutenist spends a third of their life playing - and the other two thirds tuning?

Still, I like the idea of discovering how to play in an historically informed way. I just don't want to be bound to it because, as I've already, we really can't be if we want to play anything.   

So ... plectrums from household plastic, eh? I use a modern plectrum on the oud, but today cut up a plastic drink bottle and found that, though the shape was much better, the plectrum wasn't stiff enough. So I'll try a margarine tub for the oud and cittern. Damn, I've only just started a new one. Bread and butter pudding, anyone?

Stower