Arrival

The kit finally arrived this afternoon - it actually reached San Jose on Monday but sat there for four days before it was delivered.

This is what Zuckermann calls a "Stage 2" kit which means that it comes with the case already assembled.

At the very bottom of the box is the soundboard which, like everything else, appears to have survived its 3,000 mile journey completely unscathed.

I want the wood of the case and the soundboard to acclimatize to the conditions here and not be affected by the fairly large variations in temperature and humidity that I have seen in the garage so the first thing to do is to move both of them inside the house.

The soundboard is safely sandwiched between two sheets of cardboard under the case.

Back in the garage the other parts are laid out so that I can check that there is nothing missing or damaged. Here you can see the keys for the keyboard and the box registers which guide the jacks with the keyboard frame in the background.Here is the brass wire with which the instrument will be strung, lots of little envelopes containing hundreds of pins, nails and plectra and (along with the bottle of "Titebond" and the mylar drawing) pretty much the only thing that you definitely wouldn't have seen in a 17th century harpsichord maker's workshop - a CD containing the construction manual.

In the foreground are the legs for the stand with the music desk behind them along with a cardboard box containing the jacks and, in the background, the curved bridge and moldings.
... and, last but not least, a box of colorful green clamps courtesy of Home Depot ...