Welcome to JM Instruments! Home of affordable lutes for sale for the beginner and professional lutenist since 2005, you can buy a quality English made lute under £1000! In 2010 the first Electric Baroque lute after Widhalm was made, with all the qualities of the baroque lute but with guitar tuning, a theorboed-lute-guitar.

Based in Hilton in Derbyshire, JM Instruments is within easy reach from the A50. Contact by phone on 01283734388 or via email; info@jminstruments.com.

Due to hard times for all, prices will be frozen until further notice and increases not passed on. Choose from a huge selection of lutes from historical models custom made with woods responsibly sourced by my UK suppliers. Customers can choose 7000 year old Bogwood! (semi-petrified Oak) reducing the need for Ebony which is from Gabon, West Africa, not Madagascar. Customers in the USA can get a fingerboard in Bogwood and rib spacers in dyed boxwood, no problems with/when you fill out the Lacey Act form!.

Here you will find a wide range of quality instruments at affordable prices for both beginners and more advanced players.The cheapest lute starts at £884, 6 courses,Kingham MTM cases can make cheaper 'student lute' cases, not as curvaceous as the regular. The 14 course student theorbo based on Sellas (E.547) was commissioned by Oxford Graduate Lutenist/Scholar Richard MacKenzie,  buy his new album on a Hans Frei (2004): http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/rmackenzie-bianchini/

The Student Chitarrone for continuo based on Magno Tieffenbrucker can be seen and heard played by Alex McCartney at Veterum Musica and after you can view details on this instrument in the Chitarroni menu in the instruments page. This large student theorbo has 17 ribs of Indian Rosewood instead of 51 which helps to reduce construction time considerably. The rose is tho original and the soundboard has a protective ebony edging, as does the extended neck.

If you are a beginner but wan to customise your instrument, the popular choice is the Student lute based on Hans Frei at £1,167 and there is a Venetian lute based on Wendlin Tieffenbrucker at an attractive price of  £1145. For admirers of  Baroque music, a fine 11-course Baroque Lute can be ordered  for  £1316. The student lute range aims to keep the cost down without compromising quality, just check out the student lutes section.

For the more advanced player is a range of instruments based on extant instruments by Maler, Burkholtzer, Tieffenbrucker, Schelle, Hoffmann, Buechenberg, Sellas, Ralich, Frei and Widhalm. All woods are from specialist UK suppliers, Indian Rosewood is bought in the UK as bedposts from India, from government owned forests selling rosewood at public auctions. Customers in the USA are advised not to choose Ebony at all due to the Lacey Act so Bogwood is the alternative. The Bogwood, sourced from farmland around The Wash in the Uk and not from protected peat bogs. Below is a 10crs lute based on/modelled on a lute labelled ''Matheus Buchenburg  Roma'' for an American customer; Left-handed and with a soundboard edging in boxwood dyed black instead of ebony. The spacers between the ribs are also boxwood dyed black, so no ebony has been used but looks the same as a lute made with an ebony fingerboard and soundboard edging.

There is a vast resource of lute music on the web that beginners may not be aware of. The music is written in tab. Once you have become accustomed to the tablature you will soon find you can play elaborate pieces! A lot can be found via here: check out the links page. Prices are reviewed in January/February, PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE THE CASE . If you are contemplating ordering please go to the How To Order section.