Hoo New

Couldn't leave it alone. If you look carefully at the pic above, I not only swapped out the brass tuning pins for proper zither pins, but took the excuse to re-drill for seven strings instead of six.

Which involved shaving very tiny dowels out of the red oak and gluing them into the old holes, but anyhow. Also re-carved the bridge and made a new tailpiece. Even tied on proper tailpiece knots (although would work better if the holes were spaced further back).

(I also have to say I like the sound of the metal-wound nylon string better than the bare nylon ones.)

What changes? A few more melodies open up. Especially if I use "pinch harmonics" to get that octave. And I can play triads for all the notes of the major scale (with necessary inversions; the VII chord has the root on the top). On the downside, I practically have to play the seventh degree on the I chord because otherwise there's two dead "plunks" at the top of the strum.

This is the spot where you really start to learn about the functionality of the instrument. I've been working with it, finding different ways to play it, seeing how to record it. I have to say I find the string noise a bit objectionable, especially in the strum. That's something that in many musical cultures is considered a feature not a bug. Musicologists write of the "percussive effect of the strum" when reconstructing performance practice for a Sutton Hoo-type lyre.

So, yeah. Next instrument, proper tonewoods. A larger sound cavity, a thinner back. Larger wouldn't hurt and make sure the midpoint of the strings is fully exposed for easier harmonics. Also flatten the curve of the pins. Calculate the tone hole (and put a rosette in it).

Okay: tuning up a whole step helped, as did going to a leather pick (in the example below, leather pick, nail strum in the traditional way, finger strum, and finger picking.)

Still, I'm unlikely to do a second Sutton Hoo. Might do a Trossingham, or a Celtic Lyre. Or a harp. Or one of two fictional instruments. Such as:

Traditional Vulcan Lyre: Assume that the contemporary (contemporary with Spock) instrument is an electric with a highly modified sound. Go back into the instrument's history to project what it might have been as a strictly acoustic instrument. Were the strings gathered at a single-point bridge and was there a tremolo knob (as is apparently the case with the Kithara?) Were there drone strings?

Goddess Harp: I am still puzzled by how to make this acoustic, whilst staying as close as possible to in-game depiction. For instance, since the strings appear to attached directly to the crossbar, the tuners might want to be hidden inside the body. So what is the soundboard? Is it the upper curve? (It feels like this is curved too much to be acoustically viable. Sure, a violin has a curved soundboard, but the Goddess Harp represents a smaller, more highly shaped area, with a much sharper curve.) Or is the soundboard hidden inside, along the frontal plane?

I'm tempted to design some test rigs. But later. Much later. At the moment I have an instrument and I have the music I meant to make with it loaded into Reaper.