Stringing

Now that all of the hitch pins are in place it is time to string the harpsichord.

This instrument is strung entirely in brass wire ranging from 0.009" to 0.020" in diameter with 2 sets of 53 strings.

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.

The string loop is created by simply twisting the wire together to form a double helix like this:


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.






There are 106 strings in total and at this point I am just over half way through.