Talk:Vulcan lute

Has it occurred to anyone that the instrument seen in the show is a lyre, while the lute is a completely separate instrument that has not been seen? An Earth lyre is an instrument with one note per string, like a harp - while a lute has a smaller number of strings, and a fret board for playing different notes.98.215.20.162 05:01, 3 March 2008 (UTC)bill
 * As you say, "An Earth lyre...". :) I'm not sure where exactly "lyre" or "lytherette" come from, in this reference, but as best as I can tell, it was only ever called a "lute" in dialog, namely in, with the rest being visual references. The only "lyre" reference was made to the Earth instrument you speak of, mentioned in . --Alan 05:13, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

The dialog in the deleted scene from Elaan of Troyius does name the instrument Spock is playing as a lyre (of course, it also implies that none of them had ever seen it before, which could explain somewhat why it was deleted). I think it's quite obvious that the image pictured does not match the description at all (I counted several times, and it appears to have at least 28 strings on it), so it must be two separate instruments.Redshirtsquad 05:31, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Tuvok's (first picture) has 12 strings, visually, and 5 in dialog, in the aforementioned "Innocence" reference, and it was called a lute. --Alan 05:36, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I was counting the strings on the one Spock played during Charlie X Redshirtsquad 16:10, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I count 29 in this HD screencap (here's an animated version highlighting each string in turn). The instrument in the screencap from "Innocence" at least appears to be playable, as each string has an individual tuning peg and saddle, whereas the TOS prop would be nearly impossible to tune, and the fact that the strings cluster together at the bridge end means that any notes produced by them would be damped pretty much immediately. Those problems aside, a difference in number of strings does not necessarily make them different instruments (a 6-string guitar and a 16-string guitar are both guitars).John Small Berries (talk) 19:58, February 2, 2013 (UTC)