Harpsichord #3: Final entry and the surprise!

Seeing the pictures leaves me speechless, but the video is the icing on the cake. Downright impressive.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

Pretty nifty. I’ve enjoyed this series.

-- Betsy - GO BUCKS!

Amazing example of the skill and time put into a project, very impressive!

-- Still learning everything

Holy Moly! Well, you sure put in the time! Neat job on making it a player! That is a pretty cool surprise!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I can imagine the enormous thrill you must have experienced when you first ‘plugged in’! That is really amazing. Thank you.

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business.

awesome ! truely awe inspiring. you should feel proud. very proud.

-- ..... art for lifes sake

So this is a little project you whipped out over the weekend? How many hours do you have into it? What an epic project.

-- Dust collectors suck.

YorkshireStewart – You could say that I was a bit excited!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Awesome Gary! The MIDI is a nice touch. There is a tuner company that builds organs that use bottles instead of pipes. They also use MIDI on some of thier instruments…here is a link.

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om06300.html

Also, I mentioned I had some questions on the harpsichord…well, I’ve got a bunch, but I’ll try to spread them out insterad of piling them on you all at once. I hope to start another bowed keyboard soon, and plan on using harpsichord construction methods. I was wondering how the soundbard is attached to the sides? I know that there is a “shelf” (can’t remember proper name) that the soundboard mounts to, but is it glued solid? with as much expansion/contraction as everything goes through, I was afraid the thin soundboard would split if mounted solid.

I am anxious to start on this…just a little more trimwork on our utility room, and I think I can start on it!

-- Jon

Jon – That beer bottle organ is cool, thanks for the link.

A bowed keyboard sounds cool!

The “shelf” is called the liner. you can see it in the pictures here:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/GaryK/blog/2642

You can see a list of names for all the parts here:
http://zhi.net/instr/tour.shtml

I understand your concern about the soundboard spliting and many older instruments do have splits. They occur in the treble end and have no effect on the sound. When I installed my soundboard I waited for a middle range of humidity. I moved from Southern California to Texas and the soundboard is still sound.

It is glued to the liners all around. You can see how I did it here:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/GaryK/blog/2554

It is then covered by a moulding, that also serves as a hitchrail on the bentside.
Good luck

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I have been going at this backwards so this one is not a surprise since I have already seen and heard the finished product. But this has been a wonderful blog. I am sorry that it took me so long to look at it but at least I did get around to it- finally.

Nice job Gary.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

thought you stopped this blog at one point and were writing a book

-- ..... art for lifes sake

Dan – That was for the clavichord. A different older instrument.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.