tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28383350761315418642024-03-13T10:31:43.825-07:00Neapolitan Harpsichordmdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-90499003437924950722013-03-24T22:24:00.002-07:002013-03-24T22:24:37.010-07:00Almost finished ...Getting ready to glue the sharps onto the keyboard.<br />
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The sharps after getting their first coat of oil.<br />
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Trying out the first jack - one down and only another ninety nine to go ...<br />
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At this point all that I am really trying to do is to make a first attempt at determining the most appropriate "on" and "off" positions for each register.<br />
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The case with the lid open showing the shellac finish on the inside of the lid. Overall I am pleased with most aspects of the case decoration - the natural wood finish just slightly tinted by the shellac is exactly what I was looking for and is a nice contrast to the deep red color of the outside of the case. The one thing that I am not completely happy with is the outside surface of the lid. The vertical walls of the case are very forgiving of my less then perfect painting technique, but the large flat surface of the lid shows up every defect and I will probably end up repainting it one more time once everything else is completely finished.<br />
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With the jacks all cut to length it is time to start voicing.<br />
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The white damper cloth in this picture is what was supplied with the kit but it just didn't feel quite the way that I wanted it to so I ended up using some very slightly thicker red cloth that was left over from the previous instrument.<br />
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The back 8' is now in and voiced sufficiently to be playable. I have it sitting pretty much as close under the strings as possible and still a little "over voiced". The touch feels about right and it is clear that this instrument wants to be <i>loud</i> ... In fact the whole instrument feels very "live" and resonant - so much so that voicing was made difficult by the sympathetic vibrations from all of the undamped strings - I realized quite late in the process that I could just lay some towels over the offending strings and that helped a lot. Once all of the dampers are installed things should quieten down a lot but I suspect that there will still be quite a few random noises and vibrations what will have to be tracked down.<br />
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<br />mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-50132705847809499262013-01-29T23:57:00.002-08:002013-01-29T23:57:31.569-08:00Stringing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-21886539470477078202013-01-02T10:18:00.000-08:002013-01-02T10:18:16.059-08:00Pinning the nut<br />
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mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-31170306995446392182013-01-02T09:34:00.001-08:002013-01-02T09:37:19.359-08:00Painting the case and the lidThe case and the outside of the lid are painted with milk paint and finished with several coats of boiled linseed oil which gives the paint a very nice deep and rich color.<br />
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After considering several possibilities for the inside of the lid I decided that the wood looked sufficiently good that just coating it with some light amber shellac would work.<br />
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The outside color extends all of the way to the bottom edge of the molding on the lid and the flap and initially I thought that it might be difficult to get a clean line between the paint and the shellac so I decided to apply the shellac to the inside of the lid first, then carefully sand the bottom edge of the molding before painting the outside of the lid. Milk paint really only adheres to bare wood so I was hoping that it would be easy to clean off any of the paint that might bleed through onto the shellac. In the end it didn't really matter because I managed to get a very clean line just by using masking tape on the molding and being very careful.<br />
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After finishing the inside of the lid I fitted the hinges to the lid and the flap.<br />
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The lid flap folded back ...<br />
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... and the lid open.<br />
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Next I painted the outside of the case.<br />
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Here it is after getting its first top coat of boiled linseed oil.<br />
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Here you can see the contrast between the flap which has just been painted but not yet oiled and the rest of the case.<br />
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The lid and the flap getting their first coat of oil.<br />
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mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-29402989700969263842012-11-26T10:05:00.000-08:002012-11-27T22:37:02.377-08:00Finishing the caseThe last two months have been spent finishing the case.<br />
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The first thing to go in after the soundboard are the moldings that go around the edge of the soundboard and the wrestplank.<br />
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You can't see it, but the tail hitchpin rail is there under all of those clamps.
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The bentside hitchpin rail gets more clamps than anything else. I used a combination of the clamping blocks that were used for the soundboard installation to clamp downwards and C clamps to clamp horizontally against the bentside.
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The wrestplank moldings were easy by comparison.
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Here is what it looks like once everything is in place.
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Now the holes for the hitchpins are drilled and then the cypress veneer that helps to create the illusion of an "inner" harpsichord sitting inside an "outer" case is glued to the inside of the case.
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The lid has a piece of molding fitted along the curved edge of the bentside. This was steam bent into shape and clamped using a similar arrangement to the one that I used for the moldings on the case.
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These brass hinges will attach the flap which covers the keyboard and the wrestplank to the main part of the lid.
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The jackrail slides into a slotted blocks of wood that are fitted to the case. Traditional Italian instruments of this type have a rather elaborate scroll carved at the front of this block - something like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhorn/4907009335/" target="_blank">this</a> - elegant isn't it?
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Well, actually, I happen to think that it is rather ugly - it is the one thing on Italian harpsichords that I really don't like and, since this is not supposed to be an exact copy of an historic original I intend to replace it with something simpler.
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The picture below shows the jackrail support block as it came with the kit and two alternate shapes that I experimented with. In the end I went with the very simple shape at the bottom - just a rectangular block with a cove routed around the edge.
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Here they are fitted to the cypress veneer that lines the inside of the case place.
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The interior of the case gets painted first before fitting the last molding which runs along the top edge of the cypress veneer.
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With the cap molding in place all of the cypress is finished with a rub on blend of oil and varnish.
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The nameboard fits in front of the wrestplank above the keyboard and the top molding on it has to be mitred to fit with the cap molding that runs around the inside of the case.
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Here are a few more closeups of the moldings<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F1xBa4g3DsI/ULOkCNJRAAI/AAAAAAAACKQ/5i_DRBsqESw/s1600/IMG_1898.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F1xBa4g3DsI/ULOkCNJRAAI/AAAAAAAACKQ/5i_DRBsqESw/s320/IMG_1898.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finally - all of the case woodwork is done.
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<br />mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-32197360813635761312012-09-16T23:04:00.000-07:002012-09-16T23:04:28.882-07:00Gluing in the soundboard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It has been almost 3 months since I last had a chance to work on the harpsichord but I finally managed to find enough time to get the soundboard glued in.</div>
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Putting in the soundboard is a major milestone but, particularly with an Italian instrument, it also has a certain sense of finality about it. Once the soundboard is in the inner structure of the instrument is completely inaccessible and will, with any luck, never be seen again. </div>
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I pinned the bridge a few months ago but I double checked everything and found 2 or 3 pins that were not in quite the right place - they weren't far off but it's easier to fix them now rather than risking problems later.</div>
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I also had to spend some time making sure that the ribs on the underside of the soundboard fit perfectly in the small slots cut for them in the liners and finally I had to repair a small hairline crack in the soundboard.</div>
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Once all that was done I glued in the rose which comes from <a href="http://www.gianlucaceccarini.com/roseTastieraeng.htm" target="_blank">Gianluca Ceccarini</a> and, finally, everything was ready. </div>
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Wooden blocks about 4.5" high are used to extend the reach of the F clamps down inside the case. As I discovered last time it is quite tricky trying to get 40 F clamps all lined up correctly in the short space of time that is available until the glue starts to set, so this time I went to a lot of trouble to make this as easy as possible. The wooden blocks have a slot cut in them so that they hook over the edge of the case which helps to keep them vertical - they also have a small groove cut into the outside edge of the block into which the bar of the F clamp fits and a circular hole on top into which the screw of the F clamp fits. This makes it very easy to get the clamps lined up correctly and keep them square.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UKoUKoPZJdM/UFaxUWQ1J2I/AAAAAAAACG0/MxFDl7f4fqo/s1600/IMG_1599.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UKoUKoPZJdM/UFaxUWQ1J2I/AAAAAAAACG0/MxFDl7f4fqo/s320/IMG_1599.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are 39 F clamps around the edge of the case and 9 C clamps in the gap between the soundboard and the wrestplank.<br />
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Total time from start to finish was just under 25 minutes - about 5 minutes to apply the glue to the soundboard and the liners and actually get the soundboard in place and then almost 20 minutes to get all of the clamps in place.<br />
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I left the clamps on for about 18 hours and then removed them.<br />
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So far everything looks good - there was just enough glue squeezed out around the edge of the soundboard to reassure me that I had used enough glue but not so much that cleaning it up will be a probelm.<br />
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Next tasks are to trim the soundboard perfectly flush with the edge of the gap and then fit the soundboard and wrestplank mouldings.mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-14089572230199701562012-06-12T09:36:00.001-07:002012-06-12T09:36:38.663-07:00ProgressProgress has been slow over the last couple of months but I am now almost ready to glue the soundboard into the case.<br />
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Here is the soundboard, with the bridge attached, resting in the case.<br />
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Closeup of the treble end of the bridge along with the molding that will eventually be glued to the edge of the soundboard. Things are really tight here and there is only 2 or 3 mm of clearance between the end of the bridge and the molding.<br />
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Closeups of the bridge after inserting the bridge pins.<br />
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There are four "ribs" glued to the underside of the soundboard to stiffen it - here is the second one being glued in place.<br />
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I also started the work of trimming the lid and flap to their final size. The flap needs to be big enough for a large cat to stretch out and go to sleep on it.<br />
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I trimmed the curved part of the lid by clamping it to the case and using a 1/2" router bit with an oversized end bearing to leave a slight overhang. Fortunately this is an easy cut to make from above because you are cutting with the grain of the wood. There were, however, a few places that needed to have almost 3/8" of wood removed so I made three passes over it using progressively smaller bearings and finishing up with a 7/8" bearing which left an overhang of about 3/16".<br />
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Here is the lid with the flap resting on top of it in the open position. I went to a lot of trouble to get both the flap and the end of the lid perfectly square so that when it is folded back like this the edges line up perfectly.<br />
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<span id="goog_1205993188"></span><span id="goog_1205993189"></span>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-20375880466308220262012-03-25T22:48:00.004-07:002012-03-25T23:02:06.967-07:00Bending the bridge.The bridge is made of walnut and needs to be bent into a curve before it can be fitted to the soundboard. The instructions with the kit recommend soaking the bridge in water overnight but, based on past experience, I think that steam bending it will be easier and more effective.<br /><br />The steamer is just a 6 foot length of 2" inside diameter black plastic drain pipe with some 1/4" wooden dowels used to support the work piece.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IHvNDars0hM/T3AEgue_ZCI/AAAAAAAAB7o/OqQn9xzKWqg/s1600/IMG_1145.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IHvNDars0hM/T3AEgue_ZCI/AAAAAAAAB7o/OqQn9xzKWqg/s400/IMG_1145.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724080086668239906" border="0" /></a><br />The form for bending the bridge consists of a set of small blocks screwed to a piece of wood along the curve that will be the eventual shape of the bridge.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BlNPsuttRM4/T3AEg4oi21I/AAAAAAAAB70/V9UK49jJbnQ/s1600/IMG_1150.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BlNPsuttRM4/T3AEg4oi21I/AAAAAAAAB70/V9UK49jJbnQ/s400/IMG_1150.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724080089392667474" border="0" /></a><br />After about 40 minutes the bridge is taken out of the steamer. clamped to the blocks and left to cool down and dry out for several hours.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dYwU_QI3AA/T3AEhLzg4yI/AAAAAAAAB8A/d3CjjXXHhag/s1600/IMG_1151.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dYwU_QI3AA/T3AEhLzg4yI/AAAAAAAAB8A/d3CjjXXHhag/s400/IMG_1151.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724080094538949410" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-35385179018415182982012-03-20T22:15:00.003-07:002012-03-20T22:59:45.956-07:00Finishing the caseWith all of the internal structure complete I spent the last week finishing the outside of the case.<br /><br />This involves fitting wooden blocks - "staves" at the front of the case and all of the corners and a piece of molding along the bottom edge of the case. The "staves" are both decorative and functional - they reinforce the corners of the case and conceal the screws that hold the case together. The remaining screws are all covered by the bottom molding.<br /><br />After my experience with the moldings on the Zuckermann case I was determined to find a way of clamping the moldings while they were being glued that used as few nails as possible. Nails are a very easy and convenient way of holding the moldings in place while the glue sets but I hate having to fill in the nail holes afterwards and am never quite satisfied with the results.<br /><br />In the end I managed to do it all without any nails - it took a lot longer to do it that way but the result was worth it.<br /><br />Here is the last piece of molding being fitted to the bottom of the cheek. The three clamps used here are complete overkill for this particular piece - I could probably have just held it in place with my hands for a minute or two and it would have been fine. They were, however, invaluable for doing the bentside molding which was the first piece that I fitted.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZOMPSVSOSOA/T2llQI7JvjI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/Q47MGeXf_cI/s1600/IMG_1086.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZOMPSVSOSOA/T2llQI7JvjI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/Q47MGeXf_cI/s400/IMG_1086.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216129498824242" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l8yZZwwVnq4/T2llQYvMecI/AAAAAAAAB6c/96fhDbTrNjM/s1600/IMG_1088.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l8yZZwwVnq4/T2llQYvMecI/AAAAAAAAB6c/96fhDbTrNjM/s400/IMG_1088.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216133743638978" border="0" /></a><br />Here you can see the cheek to bentside corner stave and the bentside molding.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TUPoZ3KzzEI/T2llQrzsn_I/AAAAAAAAB6k/_ntADVkQ0wg/s1600/IMG_1094.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TUPoZ3KzzEI/T2llQrzsn_I/AAAAAAAAB6k/_ntADVkQ0wg/s400/IMG_1094.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216138862796786" border="0" /></a><br />The corner staves are made up of two pieces of wood that are mitred together. The parts in the kit were pre-cut very accurately and did not require any adjustment. To keep the two pieces perfectly aligned with each other I treated this like the corner of a small box, laid them out flat - edge to edge - on the bench and used masking tape to hold them together. After applying the glue the pieces are folded up with the tape holding the corner edges together and the fitted to the case.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BeXC9VZ77LE/T2llQyuDaQI/AAAAAAAAB6w/mCWMqWTkKj8/s1600/IMG_1096.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BeXC9VZ77LE/T2llQyuDaQI/AAAAAAAAB6w/mCWMqWTkKj8/s400/IMG_1096.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216140718172418" border="0" /></a><br />With the case finished I have moved it inside the house where almost all of the rest of the work on the instrument will be done.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kf1VaeQ2ZTY/T2llQ5EKs0I/AAAAAAAAB68/IlCO1Wj8Q0c/s1600/IMG_1106.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kf1VaeQ2ZTY/T2llQ5EKs0I/AAAAAAAAB68/IlCO1Wj8Q0c/s400/IMG_1106.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216142421537602" border="0" /></a><br />Fortunately there is (just) enough space for all three harpsichords ...<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q-iq4FWCAKQ/T2ll87jtHMI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/1Gg7j9dph3E/s1600/IMG_1127.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q-iq4FWCAKQ/T2ll87jtHMI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/1Gg7j9dph3E/s400/IMG_1127.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216899004931266" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ghgDAiG6QTE/T2ll8mbuOCI/AAAAAAAAB7M/OPv7ZcxR75o/s1600/IMG_1131.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ghgDAiG6QTE/T2ll8mbuOCI/AAAAAAAAB7M/OPv7ZcxR75o/s400/IMG_1131.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722216893334304802" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-81544043377825192962012-03-04T00:16:00.004-08:002012-03-04T00:26:54.363-08:00Fitting the linersThe liners run around the inside of the case and support the soundboard.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hX8JmO04jQ0/T1MlLss6sDI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/Ys4tpf_V_iU/s1600/IMG_1011.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hX8JmO04jQ0/T1MlLss6sDI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/Ys4tpf_V_iU/s400/IMG_1011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715953234971635762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XCtoPDZujpQ/T1MlL_lykqI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/XPYH_SxFeBE/s1600/IMG_1029.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XCtoPDZujpQ/T1MlL_lykqI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/XPYH_SxFeBE/s400/IMG_1029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715953240042017442" border="0" /></a><br />The liners and the walls of the case are supported by triangular blocks of wood called "knees".<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRaUBXgYwhk/T1MlL-TCAkI/AAAAAAAAB5k/WUsLO4YrIX4/s1600/IMG_1045.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRaUBXgYwhk/T1MlL-TCAkI/AAAAAAAAB5k/WUsLO4YrIX4/s400/IMG_1045.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715953239694901826" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7O2P5NYsgmE/T1MlMLylfdI/AAAAAAAAB50/ZXwjb8ZuEM4/s1600/IMG_1047.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7O2P5NYsgmE/T1MlMLylfdI/AAAAAAAAB50/ZXwjb8ZuEM4/s400/IMG_1047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715953243316911570" border="0" /></a><br />Finally diagonal buttresses are glued in place to give additional support to the bentside.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pHsmXFFhr0g/T1MlMS07apI/AAAAAAAAB58/in-u3ageO_s/s1600/IMG_1078.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pHsmXFFhr0g/T1MlMS07apI/AAAAAAAAB58/in-u3ageO_s/s400/IMG_1078.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715953245205785234" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-44473753894627483982012-03-03T00:15:00.005-08:002012-03-03T00:53:38.740-08:00Fitting the bentsideThe most difficult part of assembling the case is fitting the bentside which has to fit exactly along the curved part of the base.<br /><br />The bentside is steam bent on a form to approximately the correct shape but needs to be carefully clamped when it is glued in place.<br /><br />A band clamp with a ratchet does most of the work but I also used several <a href="http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=31129&cat=1,41637">Veritas Wonder Dog</a> clamps.<br /><br />Here you can see the band clamp holding the bentside in place.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fkcocv_gciY/T1HTeTW3jaI/AAAAAAAAB3o/qFWlaHSFRJU/s1600/IMG_0978.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fkcocv_gciY/T1HTeTW3jaI/AAAAAAAAB3o/qFWlaHSFRJU/s400/IMG_0978.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715581919655595426" border="0" /></a><br />In order to get the clamps in the best position on the bentside the instrument had to be set at an angle on the workbench with blocks of wood clamped to the bench along the spine and the front edge of the case to hold it in place.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k97NTNlc2-Q/T1HTenbztsI/AAAAAAAAB3w/pffPgZzkQAs/s1600/IMG_0980.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k97NTNlc2-Q/T1HTenbztsI/AAAAAAAAB3w/pffPgZzkQAs/s400/IMG_0980.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715581925045024450" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gTKNmt5M9FU/T1HTe9IS_oI/AAAAAAAAB4A/Qs_45JI0AX8/s1600/IMG_0981.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gTKNmt5M9FU/T1HTe9IS_oI/AAAAAAAAB4A/Qs_45JI0AX8/s400/IMG_0981.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715581930868768386" border="0" /></a><br />Here you can see how the Veritas Wonder Dogs were used to clamp the bentside along the bottom edge.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vyVLwdZ7v1g/T1HTfFAM_ZI/AAAAAAAAB4I/_38cS52clYY/s1600/IMG_0983.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vyVLwdZ7v1g/T1HTfFAM_ZI/AAAAAAAAB4I/_38cS52clYY/s400/IMG_0983.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715581932982304146" border="0" /></a><br />Almost ready to assemble - the masking tape makes it easier to get the glue in the right place.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKj7BvakgIs/T1HTfS9CUlI/AAAAAAAAB4U/K_hp3psRXa0/s1600/IMG_0988.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKj7BvakgIs/T1HTfS9CUlI/AAAAAAAAB4U/K_hp3psRXa0/s400/IMG_0988.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715581936727118418" border="0" /></a><br />A few minutes later and it is both glued and screwed into place. At this point the screws are doing almost all of the work of holding the joints together but I left all of the clamps in place overnight to give the glue time to reach its full strength.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G4MIM7V42ag/T1HToEsK5aI/AAAAAAAAB4k/L3NilaFD-7g/s1600/IMG_0993.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G4MIM7V42ag/T1HToEsK5aI/AAAAAAAAB4k/L3NilaFD-7g/s400/IMG_0993.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715582087517103522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iT_Zc3JcQyw/T1HToZmVFDI/AAAAAAAAB4s/MzrLARSPTSc/s1600/IMG_0995.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iT_Zc3JcQyw/T1HToZmVFDI/AAAAAAAAB4s/MzrLARSPTSc/s400/IMG_0995.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715582093129749554" border="0" /></a><br />Once the glue has set and the clamps have been removed the bentside is trimmed flush with the cheek and the tail.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShT3yrt-dEc/T1HbySCOOnI/AAAAAAAAB5A/iyUlVZdbhhs/s1600/IMG_1019.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShT3yrt-dEc/T1HbySCOOnI/AAAAAAAAB5A/iyUlVZdbhhs/s400/IMG_1019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5715591058990971506" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-79797045110938313922012-02-12T18:27:00.000-08:002012-02-12T18:44:50.671-08:00Fitting the spine, tail and cheekThis weekend I got the three "easy" sides of the case installed - the spine, the tail and the cheek.<br /><br />This is the cheek being glued in place clamped to the the wrestplank support block and screwed to the bottom of the case.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZGBM6unWmYw/Tzh1enwoCuI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/zUcIBfOU5hs/s1600/IMG_0940.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZGBM6unWmYw/Tzh1enwoCuI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/zUcIBfOU5hs/s400/IMG_0940.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441696621562594" border="0" /></a><br />This is what the case looks like with the three side pieces attached.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WgrS1vIO6Dg/Tzh1eimPYQI/AAAAAAAAB2g/DFbTWyNFIzw/s1600/IMG_0944.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WgrS1vIO6Dg/Tzh1eimPYQI/AAAAAAAAB2g/DFbTWyNFIzw/s400/IMG_0944.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441695235825922" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Us7Mgn8uer4/Tzh1fL5NigI/AAAAAAAAB2o/m32oTfyV9gg/s1600/IMG_0951.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Us7Mgn8uer4/Tzh1fL5NigI/AAAAAAAAB2o/m32oTfyV9gg/s400/IMG_0951.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441706321250818" border="0" /></a><br />Closeup of the wrestplank end of the spine showing the screws securing it to the base and the small window through which the registers can be removed from the instrument which, amazingly enough lines up perfectly with the gap between the wrestplank and the upper belly rail where the registers sit.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WgrS1vIO6Dg/Tzh1eimPYQI/AAAAAAAAB2g/DFbTWyNFIzw/s1600/IMG_0944.JPG"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jNNmIv0oH4o/Tzh1fbe36bI/AAAAAAAAB2w/dpA0CE9iulA/s1600/IMG_0954.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jNNmIv0oH4o/Tzh1fbe36bI/AAAAAAAAB2w/dpA0CE9iulA/s400/IMG_0954.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441710505748914" border="0" /></a><br />Closeup of the tail end of the spine showing the spine / tail joint.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5HNaV_yzLc/Tzh1fVZtk7I/AAAAAAAAB3E/oHg66uH6eiA/s1600/IMG_0956.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5HNaV_yzLc/Tzh1fVZtk7I/AAAAAAAAB3E/oHg66uH6eiA/s400/IMG_0956.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441708873487282" border="0" /></a><br />The tail - all of the screws will ultimately be covered up by a molding that runs along the bottom of the case and by wooden blocks which cover and reinforce the corners of the case.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z5mDqZoZmpM/Tzh1rFPNYCI/AAAAAAAAB3M/RaUbBLdktQ0/s1600/IMG_0958.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z5mDqZoZmpM/Tzh1rFPNYCI/AAAAAAAAB3M/RaUbBLdktQ0/s400/IMG_0958.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441910692896802" border="0" /></a><br />Closeup of the spine / bentside corner.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4XxOcDlrQnE/Tzh1rLCanLI/AAAAAAAAB3U/vBIlFPg7RGY/s1600/IMG_0964.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4XxOcDlrQnE/Tzh1rLCanLI/AAAAAAAAB3U/vBIlFPg7RGY/s400/IMG_0964.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708441912249851058" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-32427556635313056422012-02-05T23:38:00.000-08:002012-02-06T08:52:16.455-08:00ProgressThe weather in January was not particularly conducive to harpsichord building in a workshop that occupies part of an unheated and mostly uninsulated garage. For the first few weeks the temperature was too low for gluing and this was followed by rain and wildly fluctuating humidity.<br /><br />Things are warmer and drier now and it has become possible to start assembly of the case.<br /><br />First, however, a few things that I did manage to get done in January:<br /><br />The front edge of the bottom has a narrow strip attached to it which has a groove into which the fall board fits. This is the clamping arrangement that I used for gluing the strip.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yW6BqA0MWA8/Tx0O0MjyZXI/AAAAAAAAByw/D-DM74k8fjs/s1600/IMG_0808.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yW6BqA0MWA8/Tx0O0MjyZXI/AAAAAAAAByw/D-DM74k8fjs/s400/IMG_0808.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700728993208231282" border="0" /></a><br />I also assembled the keyboard frame at this stage - having it available makes it easy to check the fit of some of the other components before they are glued in place.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2U4Jre9Z_Ww/TyjtuHtHOVI/AAAAAAAABzI/HveaqpkagW0/s1600/IMG_0813.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2U4Jre9Z_Ww/TyjtuHtHOVI/AAAAAAAABzI/HveaqpkagW0/s400/IMG_0813.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704070304662763858" border="0" /></a><br />I also drilled the wrestplank<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9z7CbW10b5s/Ty__niwEQKI/AAAAAAAABzY/FmHgs9fhSbQ/s1600/IMG_0838.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9z7CbW10b5s/Ty__niwEQKI/AAAAAAAABzY/FmHgs9fhSbQ/s400/IMG_0838.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706060307710099618" border="0" /></a><br />and attached it to its supporting blocks<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H7T61YO0_3Y/Ty__oXFHlAI/AAAAAAAABzk/gvdFvh253hQ/s1600/IMG_0849.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H7T61YO0_3Y/Ty__oXFHlAI/AAAAAAAABzk/gvdFvh253hQ/s400/IMG_0849.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706060321757041666" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tW-w1r9Yl48/Ty__pArEm_I/AAAAAAAABzw/uxkdtNOASkE/s1600/IMG_0851.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tW-w1r9Yl48/Ty__pArEm_I/AAAAAAAABzw/uxkdtNOASkE/s400/IMG_0851.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706060332922084338" border="0" /></a><br />With the lower belly rail clamped in place and two alignment jigs standing in for the wrestplank supports the two flat strips of wood on which the keyboard frame rests can be accurately positioned and glued in place<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U17U6RV8VYI/TzABlhlci4I/AAAAAAAAB04/Jn_dDCm8CJQ/s1600/IMG_0854.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U17U6RV8VYI/TzABlhlci4I/AAAAAAAAB04/Jn_dDCm8CJQ/s400/IMG_0854.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706062472060636034" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ty432AzLEE/TzAATaoxf5I/AAAAAAAAB0I/LUTicWBXJRo/s1600/IMG_0857.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ty432AzLEE/TzAATaoxf5I/AAAAAAAAB0I/LUTicWBXJRo/s400/IMG_0857.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706061061446270866" border="0" /></a><br />The lower and upper belly rails are attached to the wrestplank supports and the wrestplank assembly is complete. In these pictures the registers are also laid in place in the gap between the wrestplank and the belly rail.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PgAY-O8nS10/TzABRf7fzjI/AAAAAAAAB0c/OWAWUgR4jfc/s1600/IMG_0897.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PgAY-O8nS10/TzABRf7fzjI/AAAAAAAAB0c/OWAWUgR4jfc/s400/IMG_0897.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706062128018869810" border="0" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D81A6x8TnK4/TzABRPLtMpI/AAAAAAAAB0U/jaupuHRmeDg/s1600/IMG_0893.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D81A6x8TnK4/TzABRPLtMpI/AAAAAAAAB0U/jaupuHRmeDg/s400/IMG_0893.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706062123523453586" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EPKND8v8Zo0/TzABRbm-MwI/AAAAAAAAB0s/KPLn6uIM10A/s1600/IMG_0899.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EPKND8v8Zo0/TzABRbm-MwI/AAAAAAAAB0s/KPLn6uIM10A/s400/IMG_0899.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706062126859039490" border="0" /></a><br />That brings things up to date and finally, now that the weather is being more cooperative, the entire wrestplank assembly can be attached to the bottom of the harpsichord<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9qUD8Fhi5lY/TzACjmr9qYI/AAAAAAAAB1E/jx9SWxNXVFw/s1600/IMG_0911.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9qUD8Fhi5lY/TzACjmr9qYI/AAAAAAAAB1E/jx9SWxNXVFw/s400/IMG_0911.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706063538582038914" border="0" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5OjDXH4fRWM/TzACj8aylEI/AAAAAAAAB1M/VwOT15IS-10/s1600/IMG_0913.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5OjDXH4fRWM/TzACj8aylEI/AAAAAAAAB1M/VwOT15IS-10/s400/IMG_0913.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706063544415589442" border="0" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EYXqH_HtPYI/TzACjytnzCI/AAAAAAAAB1g/7P-Xc_VpGtI/s1600/IMG_0916.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EYXqH_HtPYI/TzACjytnzCI/AAAAAAAAB1g/7P-Xc_VpGtI/s400/IMG_0916.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706063541810220066" border="0" /></a><br />The braces that stiffen the bottom board are glued in place<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Pj8XPSs-ck/TzADCEx_K9I/AAAAAAAAB1o/X2_-G_SJ-Sc/s1600/IMG_0917.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Pj8XPSs-ck/TzADCEx_K9I/AAAAAAAAB1o/X2_-G_SJ-Sc/s400/IMG_0917.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706064062056442834" border="0" /></a><br />along with the knees that help to support the belly rail<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y5xCB6fc8_U/TzADCda7KnI/AAAAAAAAB14/y-qe8aTDic8/s1600/IMG_0920.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y5xCB6fc8_U/TzADCda7KnI/AAAAAAAAB14/y-qe8aTDic8/s400/IMG_0920.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706064068670597746" border="0" /></a><br />.... and the whole assembly is moved back inside the house along with the next parts of the case that will be assembled - the spine, cheek and tail pieces.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tmikMGUK0fY/TzADC-EReMI/AAAAAAAAB2A/wTuw_-bko9Q/s1600/IMG_0931.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tmikMGUK0fY/TzADC-EReMI/AAAAAAAAB2A/wTuw_-bko9Q/s400/IMG_0931.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706064077433960642" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-59209626617807599622012-01-22T23:07:00.001-08:002012-01-22T23:30:09.732-08:00Marking outTime to line up the drawing on top of the bottom board and mark out the positions of the knees (the triangular blocks that support the sides of the case) and the braces that stiffen the bottom.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SgbBkNbCvy8/Tx0Hlo3KR9I/AAAAAAAABx8/-PVCfdxn-64/s1600/IMG_0791.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SgbBkNbCvy8/Tx0Hlo3KR9I/AAAAAAAABx8/-PVCfdxn-64/s400/IMG_0791.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700721046526248914" border="0" /></a>Here is a close-up of the spine side of the drawing lined up exactly along the edge of the bottom.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YFNkw6bZNxg/Tx0HmJ0l0dI/AAAAAAAAByY/BEf5DfbXl8g/s1600/IMG_0796.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YFNkw6bZNxg/Tx0HmJ0l0dI/AAAAAAAAByY/BEf5DfbXl8g/s400/IMG_0796.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700721055373840850" border="0" /></a>From the close-up view of the opposite side - the cheek - you can see that the bottom is over sized by a few millimeters.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zJKOh8_oDGs/Tx0Hl66VmmI/AAAAAAAAByI/od95EGVzoUI/s1600/IMG_0795.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zJKOh8_oDGs/Tx0Hl66VmmI/AAAAAAAAByI/od95EGVzoUI/s400/IMG_0795.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700721051371412066" border="0" /></a>After marking out the upper side of the bottom I flipped it over to mark out the position of the stand.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CcFSJzz3DlE/Tx0Hm66nkTI/AAAAAAAAByg/1d6pBHtIulI/s1600/IMG_0803.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CcFSJzz3DlE/Tx0Hm66nkTI/AAAAAAAAByg/1d6pBHtIulI/s400/IMG_0803.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700721068552458546" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-77259420908929406402012-01-09T08:42:00.000-08:002012-01-09T09:06:48.654-08:00Putting together the piecesI am going to let the wood acclimatize to its new environment for a couple of weeks before I start to assemble anything but I did want to get an idea of how well the case parts were going to fit together so I set up the bottom board on my workbench and clamped the spine and cheek onto it and then laid out some of the other internal components.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VvFY4Rfjk7o/TwsZJDYWpkI/AAAAAAAABwc/2NaGgMLhXfw/s1600/IMG_0756.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VvFY4Rfjk7o/TwsZJDYWpkI/AAAAAAAABwc/2NaGgMLhXfw/s400/IMG_0756.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673797057095234" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fyqjple1o4Y/TwsZJQNDD4I/AAAAAAAABwo/QiX7tpeILpY/s1600/IMG_0758.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fyqjple1o4Y/TwsZJQNDD4I/AAAAAAAABwo/QiX7tpeILpY/s400/IMG_0758.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673800499335042" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0fLxsfXbtmQ/TwsZKuMEtEI/AAAAAAAABxQ/RdtrctR365c/s1600/IMG_0765.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0fLxsfXbtmQ/TwsZKuMEtEI/AAAAAAAABxQ/RdtrctR365c/s400/IMG_0765.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673825728181314" border="0" /></a><br />The bottom of the instrument is supplied slightly over sized so there is a slight gap between the wrestplank and the cheek. As the instrument is being assembled the cheek edge of the bottom will be planed down until it is an exact fit.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNkVHK-Yj1I/TwsZKK8p6WI/AAAAAAAABxA/JujMo-rYlzc/s1600/IMG_0763.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNkVHK-Yj1I/TwsZKK8p6WI/AAAAAAAABxA/JujMo-rYlzc/s400/IMG_0763.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673816268269922" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DVUnTKZzvKM/TwsZJ7t72iI/AAAAAAAABww/QLzLtawDpyQ/s1600/IMG_0760.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DVUnTKZzvKM/TwsZJ7t72iI/AAAAAAAABww/QLzLtawDpyQ/s400/IMG_0760.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673812179999266" border="0" /></a><br />Finally here are some of the internal bracing structures laid in place.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lFL3U4-FdBU/TwsZT5BxPGI/AAAAAAAABxs/OHi9RMBw_lM/s1600/IMG_0772.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lFL3U4-FdBU/TwsZT5BxPGI/AAAAAAAABxs/OHi9RMBw_lM/s400/IMG_0772.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673983256575074" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wwSz6uYSP4/TwsZS8Ad7zI/AAAAAAAABxc/pexY-ZOtFFk/s1600/IMG_0771.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wwSz6uYSP4/TwsZS8Ad7zI/AAAAAAAABxc/pexY-ZOtFFk/s400/IMG_0771.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695673966876553010" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-38816160566711270692012-01-08T23:22:00.000-08:002012-01-08T23:41:18.247-08:00UnpackingThe kit arrived a few days ago - all the way from France via San Antonio, TX.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ztM-7EtP4c4/TwqWsaB2ASI/AAAAAAAABwM/s6XLql7kWV8/s1600/IMG_0709.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ztM-7EtP4c4/TwqWsaB2ASI/AAAAAAAABwM/s6XLql7kWV8/s400/IMG_0709.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530368408879394" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9WJzg884D5U/TwqWXPrktmI/AAAAAAAABvE/3PfgIwrWwTk/s1600/IMG_0710.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9WJzg884D5U/TwqWXPrktmI/AAAAAAAABvE/3PfgIwrWwTk/s400/IMG_0710.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530004853864034" border="0" /></a><br />Most of the smaller components are packaged up in two boxes with some of the longer pieces of wood at the front.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Hbu1_qNg_Q/TwqWXQMZgrI/AAAAAAAABvU/TNU6srJtMZQ/s1600/IMG_0712.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Hbu1_qNg_Q/TwqWXQMZgrI/AAAAAAAABvU/TNU6srJtMZQ/s400/IMG_0712.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530004991541938" border="0" /><br /></a>The bottom of the box had quite a large hole in it but fortunately nothing was damaged.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-98_2y7Zu3pk/TwqWX8ad_zI/AAAAAAAABvc/72LVqXYJsW0/s1600/IMG_0714.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-98_2y7Zu3pk/TwqWX8ad_zI/AAAAAAAABvc/72LVqXYJsW0/s400/IMG_0714.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530016861716274" border="0" /></a><br />This is the soundboard - still in one piece after its 6,500 mile journey and still covered in a light film of sawdust.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HBxaKuhDfwI/TwqWYP-NjFI/AAAAAAAABvs/jR4n1Somu68/s1600/IMG_0721.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HBxaKuhDfwI/TwqWYP-NjFI/AAAAAAAABvs/jR4n1Somu68/s400/IMG_0721.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530022111906898" border="0" /></a><br />The first box contains the stand and the action parts including the jacks, the registers and the keyboard.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cYO_5YWLO68/TwqWYU3HRPI/AAAAAAAABv0/xevWVi2Vq-s/s1600/IMG_0727.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cYO_5YWLO68/TwqWYU3HRPI/AAAAAAAABv0/xevWVi2Vq-s/s400/IMG_0727.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530023424312562" border="0" /></a><br />The second box contains the remaining wooden components.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ip0XwQeyHk/TwqWgItamcI/AAAAAAAABwA/fzcNB9yg_Io/s1600/IMG_0730.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ip0XwQeyHk/TwqWgItamcI/AAAAAAAABwA/fzcNB9yg_Io/s400/IMG_0730.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695530157601364418" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-76114818258211343792012-01-08T22:24:00.001-08:002012-01-09T08:34:17.379-08:00A new begining ...It's 2012 and I am about to start the construction of my second harpsichord - this time from a <a href="http://www.theparisworkshop.com/en/index-en.html">Paris Workshop</a> kit supplied by <a href="http://www.gselfharpsichords.com/index.html">Gerald Self</a> - like the previous Zuckermann kit this is a Neapolitan style Italian instrument. The two instruments are similar in many ways, but there are also some significant differences.<br /><br />The most obvious visible difference is that the Zuckermann Neapolitan is what is known as an "inner" harpsichord - an instrument with a fairly thin, light weight case and no lid that, traditionally, would have been placed inside a larger and heavier outer case.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Pen38cHwLk/TwqTG_Qn-qI/AAAAAAAABu0/ZTQm9svuCks/s1600/IMG_1697.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Pen38cHwLk/TwqTG_Qn-qI/AAAAAAAABu0/ZTQm9svuCks/s400/IMG_1697.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695526427033074338" border="0" /></a><br />In contrast, the Paris Workshop instrument of the so called "false inner/outer" design where there is, in fact, only a single case but one which retains the appearance of a separate "inner" instrument sitting inside of an "outer" case.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsUyfEEdi-U/TwqMwWsjsyI/AAAAAAAABuk/KxZ6kcbkVZs/s1600/neapolitan.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 305px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tsUyfEEdi-U/TwqMwWsjsyI/AAAAAAAABuk/KxZ6kcbkVZs/s400/neapolitan.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695519441117492002" border="0" /></a>The Paris Workshop Neapolitan instrument is more fully described <a href="http://www.theparisworkshop.com/en/k/italian.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Both instruments have two 8' choirs strung in brass. very similar compasses (51 notes C-d3 for the Zuckermann instrument, 49 notes C-c3 for the Paris Workshop instrument), very similar scaling and, of course, very similar internal construction.mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-91733291693500535762011-05-06T22:41:00.000-07:002011-05-06T23:17:28.438-07:00The end ...The last few entries have been catching up with things that have happened over the last 3 months.<br /><br />Fast forward to the present day and it is May 6, 2011 - exactly 9 months since the harpsichord kit arrived on August 6 last year and I am going to declare it "finished" - for now at least ...<br /><br />Overall I am very pleased with the instrument - the back 8' has a nice warm, clear, singing character to it and is, I think, already very close to where it should be - the front 8' is a little more incisive and, when played on it's own, the top octave is perhaps a little brittle - it will probably need more work but right now it just needs to be played for a while. The two voices combined blend very well together and produce a very satisfying effect.<br /><br />Tuning appears to be quite stable with the caveat that this instrument does appear to be very sensitive to changes in humidity - much more so than the French double that is in the same room only a few feet away - a change of 5% relative humidity can shift the pitch of the Neapolitan by 15 cents while the double hardly seems to notice - even when this happens the instrument does stay pretty much in tune with itself and if you don't mind leaving it slightly sharp or flat you can get away with only touching up a few notes - on the other hand it is an extremely easy instrument to tune and a complete tuning doesn't take more than 15 or 20 minutes.<br /><br />At the outset I did intend to keep track of exactly how much time I spent working on the instrument but I completely failed to do that. The one thing that I do know is that I spent at least as much time planing and thinking about the best way to do things as I spent actually working hands-on during the construction phase which lasted almost exactly 6 months. The last 3 months were all taken up with voicing and just playing the instrument. Construction could certainly have been done in much less than 6 months elapsed time - I had originally estimated about 4 months but I had some other commitments that took up more of my time than I had expected.<br /><br />Anyway, here it is, alongside its larger and older cousin ...<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aXvZvM-d8AQ/TcTjEw9vycI/AAAAAAAABdE/J6ykcdVX5kk/s1600/IMG_1698.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aXvZvM-d8AQ/TcTjEw9vycI/AAAAAAAABdE/J6ykcdVX5kk/s400/IMG_1698.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603853507358607810" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tVyH389k0r0/TcTjElKoNvI/AAAAAAAABc8/73MNuqL426E/s1600/IMG_1691.JPG"><br /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2uc28XLVuw/TcTjEYZW2oI/AAAAAAAABc0/eLx-Xt4tkHA/s1600/IMG_1687.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2uc28XLVuw/TcTjEYZW2oI/AAAAAAAABc0/eLx-Xt4tkHA/s400/IMG_1687.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603853500763527810" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v7U3cOWXfcY/TcTjFPGX8pI/AAAAAAAABdM/tP5xbO9FlV4/s1600/IMG_1701.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v7U3cOWXfcY/TcTjFPGX8pI/AAAAAAAABdM/tP5xbO9FlV4/s400/IMG_1701.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603853515447857810" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-68928453852162737172011-05-04T23:11:00.001-07:002011-05-06T22:15:13.774-07:00Voicing 3Once the stop lever for the back 8' was installed I had to make few adjustments to the voicing since the precise position of the register in the "on" position had changed very slightly - just enough to make 5 or 6 notes unreliable. In each case the plectrum was just slightly shorter than it needed to be and all that was required was to push the plectrum just slightly further through the tongue. I also had to adjust the dampers slightly so that they still damped the string when the register was moved into the "off" position.<br /><br />Here you can see a close-up of some of the front 8' jacks before voicing. The register for the front 8' is in the "off" position and the plectra have already been cut to approximately the correct length so that they are clear of the strings.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Yoi8axEZHg/TcJBqN2MbQI/AAAAAAAABcc/BfVGGVGFjy8/s1600/IMG_0863.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Yoi8axEZHg/TcJBqN2MbQI/AAAAAAAABcc/BfVGGVGFjy8/s400/IMG_0863.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603113079929597186" border="0" /></a><br />This is what it looks like after voicing with the dampers in place. The front 8' register is now in the "on" position.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b5UvKdu-rDc/TcJC0whLWYI/AAAAAAAABco/jSmDOqy1jPM/s1600/IMG_1665.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b5UvKdu-rDc/TcJC0whLWYI/AAAAAAAABco/jSmDOqy1jPM/s400/IMG_1665.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603114360547006850" border="0" /></a><br />The last thing that needs to be done is to regulate the action to get the plucking order right. The two sets of jacks should pluck their respective strings at slightly different times when the key is depressed otherwise the touch will feel unpleasantly stiff and heavy when playing with both registers engaged. The back 8' has a natural tendency to pluck first because the angle at which the back of the key rises when the front of the key is pressed. The exact length of the plectrum also helps to determine the precise moment at which the pluck occurs and finally the length of the jacks can also be adjusted slightly if necessary.<br /><br />I had tried to make the plectra for the front 8' just slightly longer than the ones for the back 8' and most of the notes were already plucking the strings in the correct order but in many cases they were still very close together and the touch was quite stiff. While I had done my best to get the jacks set up so that the spacing between the plectra and the strings was consistent there were a few of the back 8' jacks that were a little short - padding the bottom of the jacks with 4 or 5 thicknesses of masking tape brings the plectrum closer the string so that it plucks earlier. In a few places I also shortened the back 8' plectrum to get it to pluck sooner. Similarly with the front 8' shortening the jack increases the distance between the plectrum and the string and delays the pluck as does pushing just a little more of the plectrum through the tongue.<br /><br />It took quite a while to get this right - at first I still had both jacks plucking much to close to each other and the touch was really stiff - you don't want the plucks to be too far apart but they do have to be quite distinct. Eventually I got a few notes to both sound and feel right and then it was easier to make the others behave the same way.mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-63431362433454497082011-04-29T23:52:00.001-07:002011-04-30T01:27:39.018-07:00Voicing 2Once the back 8' seemed to playing reasonably well I turned my attention to the front 8'.<br /><br />Zuckermann provide a wooden lever stop level which moves the register for the front 8' so that it can be turned on and off. There is, however, no provision for controlling the register for the back 8' and before voicing the back 8' I had carefully set it into the correct positions by inserting shims at either end of it.<br /><br />This means that, in order to voice the front 8', you have to remove the jacks for the back 8' which is less than ideal for several reasons - it makes it difficult to find the right balance between the two voices and it leaves the strings for the back 8' completely undamped which means that when you play the front 8' you have to contend with the sound of sympathetic vibrations from the back 8'.<br /><br />After a frustrating week of not making much progress I decided that, at the very least, I needed to be able to turn the back 8' on and off on a temporary basis while I was voicing the front 8'. Since the jacks for the back 8' pluck the strings on their left this means that the register needs to be moved slightly (somewhere between 1mm and 1.5mm) to the right in order to get it into the "off" position. Since there was already a shim of approximately the correct thickness at the right hand end of the register all that was necessary was to remove it. Unfortunately, however, the gap between the end of the registers and the case is hidden by the wooden plates on which the jack rail supports are mounted which makes it impossible to get at the shims without removing all of the jacks, removing the spine plug and removing the registers from the instrument.<br /><br />Once I had the back 8' register set up so that it could be turned on and off and had made some progress with voicing the front 8' I decided that it would be worth making an additional stop lever for the back 8' and making it a permanent feature of the instrument.<br /><br />Here is the original stop lever for the front 8':<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ij72yd3QpsA/TbvGsEm7l_I/AAAAAAAABbo/T7NkPKbcLtI/s1600/IMG_1654.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ij72yd3QpsA/TbvGsEm7l_I/AAAAAAAABbo/T7NkPKbcLtI/s400/IMG_1654.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601289022018918386" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oNIyQLLtVHE/TbvFVXzoV5I/AAAAAAAABbM/88a2zK1zozc/s1600/IMG_1658.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oNIyQLLtVHE/TbvFVXzoV5I/AAAAAAAABbM/88a2zK1zozc/s400/IMG_1658.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601287532523837330" border="0" /></a><br />I made a copy of it - slightly longer than the original because it has to reach the back register<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RWG5iyqrNh4/TbvFUu7ylQI/AAAAAAAABa8/0tObOSg4dkA/s1600/IMG_1649.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RWG5iyqrNh4/TbvFUu7ylQI/AAAAAAAABa8/0tObOSg4dkA/s400/IMG_1649.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601287521552209154" border="0" /></a><br />and here it is fitted in place<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfSQ-0wrGqM/TbvFU6ZFp9I/AAAAAAAABbE/73w4qSgC5Ao/s1600/IMG_1651.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfSQ-0wrGqM/TbvFU6ZFp9I/AAAAAAAABbE/73w4qSgC5Ao/s400/IMG_1651.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601287524627883986" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-28240548531156712612011-04-20T22:07:00.000-07:002011-04-21T00:50:35.290-07:00VoicingI finally started voicing the harpsichord in early February.<br /><br />First the jacks have to be cut to the correct length so that the plectrum will be about 1.5 mm below the string. On this instrument all of the jacks are going to be very close to the same length but each one will have to be individually adjusted so at this stage I aimed to cut them just slightly over length.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uiX5MWnnDa8/Ta-_IE1nnII/AAAAAAAABZY/5LUMX4QugZ4/s1600/IMG_0852.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uiX5MWnnDa8/Ta-_IE1nnII/AAAAAAAABZY/5LUMX4QugZ4/s400/IMG_0852.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597903007303310466" border="0" /></a><br />Almost done with the jacks for the back 8' - two of the jacks in the picture have plectra fitted to them so that I can check that the length of the jack is correct.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WmSK83LFEQk/Ta-_IVrHF-I/AAAAAAAABZg/vvqR0P1z6NI/s1600/IMG_0851.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WmSK83LFEQk/Ta-_IVrHF-I/AAAAAAAABZg/vvqR0P1z6NI/s400/IMG_0851.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597903011822639074" border="0" /></a><br />Voicing is conceptually very simple - all you have to do is insert a plectrum into the slot in the tongue of the jack, cut it to the correct length and remove a few thousands of an inch of material from it with a sharp knife until the note sounds right then fit a small piece of damper cloth into the slot at the top of the jack so that it damps the string when the key isn't pressed. Repeat the process (for this instrument) 106 times and you are (almost) done.<br /><br />It turned out that I had perhaps been a little too cautious when cutting the jacks to length - the plectra were mostly either touching the string or sometimes just a little above it so I had to take 1 or 2 mm off the length of each jack. It took a little while to figure out the most efficient way of doing this but eventually I settled on using some 80 grit sandpaper to remove most of the excess length and then making the final adjustments with a fine toothed file.<br /><br />My main goal for the initial voicing was just to get the instrument playing and to get some idea of what it could do without worrying too much about the details. I had voiced a few plectra for my French Double but that was much easier because the rest of the instrument was already voiced so it was very clear what it should sound like and it was even possible to look at the plectra for adjacent notes to see roughly how the plectrum should be cut. This was different because I was starting from scratch with only a vague idea of what the instrument could or should sound like.<br /><br />I started with middle C and then did the notes one and two octaves above and below - initially just getting them to sound reliably and then trying to thin the plectra down to the point where the note started to sound "right". One thing that became apparent very early on is the extent to which voicing is both a tactile and an aural process - at first the plectrum is far too thick, the key feels very stiff, there is a very strong pluck and the sound is harsh but as the plectrum is gradually cut thinner and thinner both the touch and the sound improve and both start to feel "right" at about the same time.<br /><br />Once I got all of the C's voiced, I did the G's and then E's giving me a C major triad.<br /><br />Here is what things looked like at about that point. All of the plectra have been fitted to the back 8' set of jacks and cut to approximately the correct length.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rKbUJLrXigQ/Ta_LfuCObAI/AAAAAAAABZs/_ocxqNz6ocE/s1600/IMG_0775.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rKbUJLrXigQ/Ta_LfuCObAI/AAAAAAAABZs/_ocxqNz6ocE/s400/IMG_0775.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597916607638563842" border="0" /></a>The jacks that have been voiced have dampers fitted to them.<br /><br />In the second picture you can see that some of the unvoiced plectra are still sitting above the strings because the jacks have not yet been filed down to the correct length<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYZ1pMYNhdI/Ta_Lf3bonsI/AAAAAAAABZ0/aQf6XM8YLME/s1600/IMG_0780.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYZ1pMYNhdI/Ta_Lf3bonsI/AAAAAAAABZ0/aQf6XM8YLME/s400/IMG_0780.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597916610161057474" border="0" /></a><br />Then it is just a matter of going through all of the other notes one at a time.<br /><br />I think that the initial voicing of the 53 notes of the back 8' took me about 10 hours over the course of a week. A lot of this time was spent just getting the jacks down to the right length. Cutting the plectra was also very slow at first, but started to get a lot faster by the time that I was about half way through. Partly this was a result of acquiring the manual dexterity to manipulate the jack, the voicing block and the knife efficiently but the really big time saving came once I started to learn how much the plectra needed to be cut in order to make a particular change in the voicing. This greatly reduced the number of times that I needed to try the jack in the instrument.<br /><br />Here is how things looked just after the the initial voicing of the back 8' was finished. The blue masking tape on the jack rail is a temporary measure to hold the cloth padding the underside of the jack rail in place.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GDNqfVH7ohg/Ta_UjoQI5BI/AAAAAAAABaA/-XpXnPqzUYA/s1600/IMG_0848.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GDNqfVH7ohg/Ta_UjoQI5BI/AAAAAAAABaA/-XpXnPqzUYA/s400/IMG_0848.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597926570410435602" border="0" /></a><br />At this point the instrument was actually playable for the first time and, although the voicing was still quite rough it was possible to get some idea of how it was going to sound.<br /><br />One of the first and most obvious things is that I like the way that the keyboard feels - the depth of touch is quite shallow and I had been a little concerned about how that would feel but in fact it feels really good - there is a very direct connection with the sound and it just feels "right".<br /><br />Overall the sound was good as well although I thought that the top octave was perhaps a little weak and the octave below middle c was a little loud. This is really quite difficult to judge when sitting at the keyboard and I noticed that the balance between different parts of the instrument sounds noticeably different when standing over it.<br /><br />I played the instrument for a few days and then started to rework the voicing of the back 8'.<br /><br />Some of the plectra, although they sounded reasonable had been cut very unevenly and others had been cut very narrow and were clearly not going to be amenable to any further voicing so I set about replacing them. I also wanted to see how much sound I could get out of the top octave so I replaced most of those plectra and left them all voiced just a little bit too strongly. In the end I probably replaced more than half of the original plectra but this went much faster than the original voicing and only took a couple of hours.<br /><br />For the next 2 weeks I just played the back 8', fixed problems as they came up and every few days went over the voicing taking just a little more off any notes that seemed a little too loud.<br />Overall there were very few problems although I did have a few "hangers" that were difficult to diagnose at first. A "hanger" is a jack where the plectrum fails to slip back under the string when the key is released and instead "hangs" on top of it. This can happen if the plectrum is too long or isn't cut correctly or if there is a problem with the jack tongue or the spring that prevents it from swinging back to allow the plectrum to slide past the string.<br /><br />The problem notes were <span style="font-style: italic;">almost</span> working but sometimes the jack tongue just wouldn't swing back quite far enough to allow the plectrum to get past the string. This puzzled me until I noticed something that almost all of the jacks with this problem had in common.<br /><br />The spring that holds the jack tongue in place is just a small piece of steel wire that presses against the back of the tongue and runs down through a small hole in the jack body and ends up in a slot in the back of the jack. The problem jacks all looked like this one where you can clearly see the end of the steel wire in the slot in the back of the jack body.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nguAT__Ug-8/Ta_fjQRUmQI/AAAAAAAABaM/5zSZs25QYPE/s1600/IMG_1586.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nguAT__Ug-8/Ta_fjQRUmQI/AAAAAAAABaM/5zSZs25QYPE/s400/IMG_1586.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597938658600851714" border="0" /></a>The problem is that the steel wire is not seated properly in the slot. Because of that the part of the wire that presses against the back of the tongue is leaning forwards at a slight angle and applying just a little too much pressure. The solution was just to push the wire right down into the slot as seen below and suddenly the jack starts working correctly.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DvnfjHSeyqo/Ta_fjvTYHrI/AAAAAAAABaU/GU8qiTA0rWk/s1600/IMG_1590.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DvnfjHSeyqo/Ta_fjvTYHrI/AAAAAAAABaU/GU8qiTA0rWk/s400/IMG_1590.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597938666930970290" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-23070999220645693492011-03-21T23:22:00.000-07:002011-03-21T23:48:53.039-07:00Stringing 3Once all of the bridge pins are in place the instrument can be brought up to pitch - a process that takes several days to complete. Actually tuning the instrument only takes about 20 or 30 minutes but the strings are all new and stretch slightly during the process which means that, by the time you have finished, the first strings that you tuned will already have dropped in pitch by quite a significant amount and a day later the whole instrument will be about a semi-tone flat.<br /><br />If you are just replacing a single string you can get it somewhere close to stable in 10 minutes or so by repeatedly bringing it back up to pitch but with a new instrument there is no point in trying to do that - all of the hitchpin loops and the coils on the tuning pins are settling in and the whole instrument is adjusting to being under tension so you might as well just start tuning and checking things once a day for the next few days until the instrument settles down.<br /><br />As it happens I was kept quite busy because I has to replace quite a few strings during the process. There were one or two hitchpin loops that obviously weren't quite as good as I thought they were because they slipped and the strings would not stay up to pitch so obviously they had to be replaced. I also broke quite a few strings, almost all of which were in the octave below middle c. They all broke at the hitchpin loop just at the end of the double helix where the wire is twisted together. After some investigation I came to the conclusion that I had been twisting the wire just a little bit too tightly when making the hitchpin loops and that this was the cause of the problem. The wire on this instrument ranges from 0.022" in the bass to 0.009" in the treble. The strings that broke were all about 0.012" - it seems that the thinner wire could survive being twisted quite tightly and that the thicker wire was just a bit stronger but the 0.012" just didn't like the way that I had been treating it. I had to replace about 15 strings but all of the replacements held OK.mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-88290420697376955432011-01-30T21:16:00.000-08:002011-01-31T09:44:29.750-08:00Pinning the nutNow that all of the strings are in place it is time to pin the nut.<br /><br />The "nut" is the bridge which sits on top of the wrest plank between the tuning pins and the bridge.<br /><br />It is the pins on the nut and on the bridge attached to the soundboard that control the exact position of each string, and it is really critical that they are in exactly the right place because there is essentially no margin for error if all of the strings are going to end up in the right place relative to the jacks.<br /><br />Since this instrument has two registers there are pairs of strings each of which sound the same note. These pairs of strings fall on opposites sides of the jacks for each note and the jacks face in opposite directions. The front jack plucks the string on its right and the back one plucks the strings on its left.<br /><br />The size of an octave on this instrument's keyboard is about 162 mm which only leaves 13.5 mm per note into which we have to fit the width of the jack (about 4 mm) and two strings (which range from about 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm in diameter). What that means is that the pair of strings for each note ends up having a width of about 10 mm, centered on the 4 mm jack leaving about 3 mm between the jack and the strings. That leaves us another 3 mm separating the string pairs for adjacent notes. (and yes, there is another 0.5 mm in there somewhere that you can put wherever you need to in order to make things fit ...)<br /><br />To make it easier to get the strings into the correct position we use a marking gauge which drops into each jack slot in the register and which has lines marked on it indicating exactly where the strings should be. Once you have that in place all you have to do is to insert a pin into the nut at the correct place. The catch is that you don't just want to get the string into the correct position at a single point - you want it to cross the registers at right angles and maintain the same distance from both sets of jacks - and that can only work (especially in the treble where the strings are very short) if the pins that have already been inserted into the bridge are also in exactly in the right place.<br /><br />Before doing anything else I went used the marking gauge to go through all of the strings looking for any obvious problems - everything seemed to be OK, but it looked as if I was going to have to take about 1.5 mm of the right hand end of the registers to get everything to line up correctly. I was pretty sure about this but also a little worried because the parts in this kit have all been cut amazingly accurately and the registers already looked as if they fit perfectly.<br /><br />However, when all else fails, try reading the instructions ...<br /><br />The instructions were to set the rightmost string into a specific position (1 19/32" from the inside edge of the case), and use that in conjunction with the marking gauge to determine the correct position of the register. Amazingly enough, when I actually followed the instructions, I determined that the back register needed to be in exactly the position that I thought it needed to be in - about 1.5 mm to the right of where it was. So, I took about 2.5 mm off the end of the register (an extra 1 mm to allow for future adjustments) and set it back in place with some shims at either end to fix it in the correct position.<br /><br />By the way, this instrument has what is, for an Italian harpsichord, a distinctly inauthentic but very practical feature - a hole in the spine of the instrument covered by a removable plate which allows the registers to be removed without the need to also remove most of the strings ...<br /><br />Once everything was in place the actual drilling of the holes and inserting the pins was quite easy.<br /><br />The result looks like this:<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZP7dvnDJI/AAAAAAAABW8/nFnJRDrKRw4/s1600/IMG_0709.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZP7dvnDJI/AAAAAAAABW8/nFnJRDrKRw4/s400/IMG_0709.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568225872305392786" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZP7Ch_NTI/AAAAAAAABW0/P5j5ULsJ7fA/s1600/IMG_0712.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZP7Ch_NTI/AAAAAAAABW0/P5j5ULsJ7fA/s400/IMG_0712.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568225865000498482" border="0" /></a><br />Here is the marking gauge being used to check strings that have already been pinned.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZQEo1VstI/AAAAAAAABXE/QC2xN518SuE/s1600/IMG_0715.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZQEo1VstI/AAAAAAAABXE/QC2xN518SuE/s400/IMG_0715.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568226029901034194" border="0" /></a>The distances involved are so small that you have to be very careful to look directly down on the string when checking the alignment. Here the camera angle makes it look as if the right hand string is slightly to the left of the mark but in fact both of these strings are lined up in exactly the right place.<br /><br />In the end everything went very well and I only made one mistake (at least, only one that I have found so far).<br /><br />There were three pins that didn't quite end up in the right place. They weren't out by much and I could probably have <span style="font-style: italic;">just</span> gotten away with bending the pins a lot to force the strings into the right place - but that would have left me with no possibility of doing any fine adjustment on those strings and since everything else appeared to be "just right" I decided to go back and fix them.<br /><br />This was really quite easy and didn't even take very long to do.<br /><br />First I removed the three offending pins and drilled the holes out slightly to 1/16".<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0q6ueMI/AAAAAAAABXo/zlZPQAwXFe4/s1600/IMG_0736.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0q6ueMI/AAAAAAAABXo/zlZPQAwXFe4/s400/IMG_0736.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568232352652359874" border="0" /></a><br />Then I plugged the holes with small pieces of cherry which I had whittled down from a spare piece of soundboard molding. This is exactly the same way that I plugged the holes left by the nails that were used to position the nut when it was being glued down. In fact you can see one of those plugs right in the middle of this picture.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0axg3II/AAAAAAAABXg/rN1XkGM66Pw/s1600/IMG_0738.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0axg3II/AAAAAAAABXg/rN1XkGM66Pw/s400/IMG_0738.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568232348318751874" border="0" /></a><br />Once the glue dried I cut the plugs off flush with the nut and sanded carefully with a small piece of sandpaper.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0OXRE6I/AAAAAAAABXY/BVaEjFeUmA4/s1600/IMG_0744.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZV0OXRE6I/AAAAAAAABXY/BVaEjFeUmA4/s400/IMG_0744.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568232344987440034" border="0" /></a><br />After redrilling the holes and inserting the pins you really can't tell that anything was done (except for that fact that the pins are now in the correct position ...)<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZVz7Xa-0I/AAAAAAAABXQ/XrcUXIBq9LM/s1600/IMG_0750.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TUZVz7Xa-0I/AAAAAAAABXQ/XrcUXIBq9LM/s400/IMG_0750.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568232339887815490" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-10698095869256843692011-01-25T00:21:00.000-08:002011-01-25T00:41:45.133-08:00Stringing 2Almost done ...<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HIlY1McI/AAAAAAAABUc/dJwWRDkHWKQ/s1600/IMG_0673.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HIlY1McI/AAAAAAAABUc/dJwWRDkHWKQ/s400/IMG_0673.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566034771021476290" border="0" /></a><br />At last all 106 strings are in place:<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6LG_oHeWI/AAAAAAAABWA/0Qj-VzMzkss/s1600/IMG_0684.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6LG_oHeWI/AAAAAAAABWA/0Qj-VzMzkss/s400/IMG_0684.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566039141751683426" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6LHACrkkI/AAAAAAAABWI/sfkC6IFikvQ/s1600/IMG_0687.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6LHACrkkI/AAAAAAAABWI/sfkC6IFikvQ/s400/IMG_0687.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566039141863100994" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HJhWa3EI/AAAAAAAABU8/RS1uSDeSQuc/s1600/IMG_0703.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HJhWa3EI/AAAAAAAABU8/RS1uSDeSQuc/s400/IMG_0703.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566034787117489218" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HPjGSBnI/AAAAAAAABVE/Lb-RxJ2HQQI/s1600/IMG_0705.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HPjGSBnI/AAAAAAAABVE/Lb-RxJ2HQQI/s400/IMG_0705.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566034890665887346" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HI2ymluI/AAAAAAAABUk/lJ8EnRwqg1w/s1600/IMG_0681.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TT6HI2ymluI/AAAAAAAABUk/lJ8EnRwqg1w/s400/IMG_0681.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566034775692973794" border="0" /></a>mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838335076131541864.post-6976441570606867362011-01-18T00:24:00.000-08:002011-01-18T00:57:12.125-08:00StringingNow that all of the hitch pins are in place it is time to string the harpsichord.<br /><br />This instrument is strung entirely in brass wire ranging from 0.009" to 0.020" in diameter with 2 sets of 53 strings.<br /><br />Each string has a loop at one end which goes over the hitch pin and the other end is wrapped around a tuning pin which is inserted into one of the holes in the wrestplank at the front of the instrument.<br /><br />The string loop is created by simply twisting the wire together to form a double helix like this:<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVSS66Qu-I/AAAAAAAABTY/3mZvB75e4yY/s1600/IMG_0620.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVSS66Qu-I/AAAAAAAABTY/3mZvB75e4yY/s400/IMG_0620.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563443399690861538" border="0" /></a><br />The tuning pins are hammered into holes that are just slightly undersized and are held in place by friction. It is very important that they turn as smoothly as possible in their holes and traditionally they would probably have been lubricated with either wax or powdered chalk but I am going to use micro fine powdered Teflon.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUsNGezBI/AAAAAAAABUE/6XDCU2TD3NI/s1600/IMG_0638.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUsNGezBI/AAAAAAAABUE/6XDCU2TD3NI/s400/IMG_0638.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563446033093938194" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUsN0LyZI/AAAAAAAABT8/vSq5XWKR7sU/s1600/IMG_0639.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUsN0LyZI/AAAAAAAABT8/vSq5XWKR7sU/s400/IMG_0639.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563446033285630354" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrr2newI/AAAAAAAABT0/X_xp5jWgeaw/s1600/IMG_0644.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrr2newI/AAAAAAAABT0/X_xp5jWgeaw/s400/IMG_0644.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563446024169028354" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrVfdv0I/AAAAAAAABTs/gx1HHrGJxpg/s1600/IMG_0651.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrVfdv0I/AAAAAAAABTs/gx1HHrGJxpg/s400/IMG_0651.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563446018166341442" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrTqG-TI/AAAAAAAABTk/lNJhM_0RqOA/s1600/IMG_0661.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E0Z1oCXo014/TTVUrTqG-TI/AAAAAAAABTk/lNJhM_0RqOA/s400/IMG_0661.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563446017674115378" border="0" /></a><br />There are 106 strings in total and at this point I am just over half way through.mdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00908299749058336628noreply@blogger.com0