The builder of this harpsichord is a retired Cornell engineering professor named Al Clark. He has been a woodworking hobbyist for a long time and has built some beautiful pieces. Several years ago he decided to try his hand at making harpsichords. Attached are pictures of the instrument we have. It is his second and modeled after Tibaut. As you can see, it is not an amateur looking case. He even made his own jacks; wood + no adjustment screws = yikes! :-) While Jon's suggestion of using zither style pins has crossed my mind, I want to preserve the look Al wanted for the instrument. He told me what the pinblock material is but I cannot remember if it was oak or walnut. I'm not a builder but I don't think either of those woods works well for a pinblock. Not sure where he got the idea to use an open pore wood. I am fairly proficient with wrapping a string around the current pins without becket holes; I just don't like it. It is a bit quicker with becket holes and if I can get the pins I want I'll be a happy camper! I am aware that whatever I eventually do, I have to be careful of the pin hole size. The point is well taken that there is the possibility of splitting. I have measured the pins Willard uses and they are similar in diameter to the thicker part of the tapered pins and, they are the same height. If I can get pins like Willard uses I do not expect to modify the holes too much. Many thanks to Bill and Chris for connecting with Willard and David Doremus for the Marc Vogel link! Regards, Don Don McKechnie Piano Technician Ithaca College dmckech at ithaca.edu 607.274.3908  -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091009/40df8aef/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Tibaut 22.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 59672 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091009/40df8aef/attachment-0002.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Tibaut 32.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 51615 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091009/40df8aef/attachment-0003.jpg>
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